Ella's One-Year Photos

I first took Ella in on Friday, April 10th, for her one-year photos and, for the first time in my mothering career, we left empty handed.  Between my three children, I have been to our department store photo studios over twenty times and, although their photographers are not the finest, we have always been able to get at least one photo "worthy" of an 8 x 10 picture.  But, I guess that there is always time for a first.  Ella refused to produce anywhere close to a stellar picture from the mediocre photographer we had and by the time the manager got in there to help us, it was too late.  Ella had hit her wall and was done.  So, after trying for a few more minutes, I packed her up and left.  I then rescheduled a second shoot a week later with the manager who actually has taken some fabulous pictures of Logan and Lia in the past.  But no matter what this photographer tried, Ella refused to give us a brilliant, open-mouthed smile.  She just kept on smiling with her mouth closed over and over again.  We could even hear Ella giggling sometimes with her mouth closed!  Argh.  It wasn't until the very end that I started tickling Ella under her chin.  This finally made her smile with a big grin, but she kept on reaching up to grab her chin.  So, all of these pictures have lots of hands and arms in them.  Oh well.  My seven years of mothering has taught me not to expect perfection.  So, we called it a wrap and and walked away with some semi decent photos.  Hopefully, Ella will snap out of it by the time we go in for her 18 month pictures.  We shall see...