How we take a photo

These days trying to get one good photo is a challenge. I thought I would share with you a couple of series of photos, which make me laugh as I'm editing them. For many of the photos you see here, I've gone through quite a few to get the money shot. Emmy is in this phase of making silly or strange faces. Or she's trying to help get Matthew to smile, which means she's not looking at the camera when he finally is. Maddening, I tell you.

Here is a good example from New Year's Day. I wanted a nice photo of them since it was a holiday. Emmy was grumpy, at first, about having her picture made.

Both of them started off looking pretty cranky.

She quickly got the giggles. 

Now he's grinning.

But she cannot stop laughing. 

This is as good as it got. The silly went downhill from there. 

She started sticking out her tongue so I threw in the towel. 

In this fun series from a couple of days ago, I wanted a quick photo of them in some new shirts my mom had sent. She had ordered both shirts a little big, and Emmy's was quite big. Though she likes the shirt, it was too uncomfortable to wear (she has major issues these days about clothes and their fit/feel), and I told her she did not have to wear it yet, we could save it for next winter. But, I did want to take one quick photo of them in the shirts to send to SuSu to thank her. Somehow she missed this information, so when I forced them to sit down for photos, well you can see for yourself:

Grumpy.

Daddy is trying hard to get them to smile. 

Suddenly, she will "help" make Matthew smile by making a silly face.

Meanwhile he's about done. 

Now she's "smiling" and he's grumpy. 

Daddy tries to readjust and get him smiling again. 

He wasn't having it. 

Really not having it. 

And he's done. 

Don't worry, he was smiling just a moment later. 

And in neither case did I get a really good photo of the two of them at the same time. There's always next time!

Acrobat or Monkey? You decide.

As I mentioned in a previous post one of Emmy's new tricks is to push herself off your lap to flip herself over backwards and hang upside down. Here's a picture of her the other morning performing one of her tricks. Don't mind me in the background.


I know that we should let her watch TV yet, and usually we have the TV off. When it is on, it certainly does catch her attention, especially when there's music involved. Saturday morning Charles was looking at some clips on YouTube of musical groups, and she was fascinated!


Emmy is also fascinated with her hands lately. I'll often catch her looking at them. It was hard to snap a photo, but Charles did get one of her on her changing table the other day. I've also caught her looking at my mouth when I'm singing different songs and she'll move her mouth like she's trying to figure out how to form different words. So cute! Today I was sitting in front of her singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and she was entranced by the hand movements. It's so funny to see what catches her eye. Music is seeming to be one of her favorites lately and we'll have to see about starting Kindermusik in the Spring!

Here she is today so cute in her new "Baby Legs." I admit when I saw these before I was pregnant I thought "leg warmers for babies, what?" Now that I have a baby I think "these are brilliant." Emmy has some cute onesies (like the super cute fish one she's wearing here that Mary Ann gave her) that would be fun for her to wear but I worry about it being a bit cold. But, pants or tights are just a pain, especially when we're just hanging around the house. The Baby Legs are cute, and they don't have to come off for a diaper change. Woohoo! Now that I've tried one pair, I want more! I can see her wearing them instead of tights under casual dresses.