Every so often though, I get reminded that, as much as I love Pinterest, and YouTube videos, and Facebook, and Twitter {insert everything else taking up memory space on your smartphone here}, the apps/social media that I engage in to inform my decisions/plans/views are just short snippets of everyone's highlight reel and not the entire reality of life as it exists.
For example, have you ever looked at other people's family portraits and thought: "How come my family never looks like that when we get our picture taken?" Answer: "Because they posted the one photo out of 357 takes that qualified as pin worthy". (Pin worthy is a thing. I looked it up because I was hoping I just made up an awesome new phrase to be my blog's claim to fame, but someone already did, so never mind.) In my efforts to keep reality alive (I'm nothing if not authentic) and prove a point, I give to you "Edinger Boys and Cousins Photo Shoot 2017".
Disclaimer: I like to think that since I've been involved in family portraits with children since the year 2000, I have good advice to give them, i.e. "Pretend that you like each other and smile naturally". But we all know good advice is rarely followed the first time, right? When that little tip is ignored, I move on to bribes. "If everyone can just please smile and stay in position, we'll have ice cream when we're all done. Maybe the best smilemaker will get a lifetime supply of cookie dough!" By the end though I've unfortunately lost all semblance of patience and have resorted to threats. "You guys need to do this right or you're grounded for the rest of your life." If that doesn't work, I pull out the deadly Mom Guilt Trip (which I'm not proud of, but it has helped get us through several difficult photo shoots, so WHATEVER)... "I can't believe after everything I do for you, all of the sick nights I worried over you, all of the poopy diapers and pukey clothes I've changed for you... to say nothing of entering the VALLEY OF DEATH to give birth to you...the least you could do is let me have this ONE moment of cooperation, literally ONE photo where you all look at the camera at the same time. Consider it a dying wish, only without the death bed." (I might employ a bit of drama- it's all good).
The reality is there are lots of bloopers before the highlight reel. Good thing these boys and their cousins are so cute. Even the bloopers can be precious, if we don't take it too seriously.
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| The white shirt was supposed to contrast with the lollipop, not blend in. Blue chins for days. |
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| In his defense, the instructions were "Hold your lollipop down so it doesn't cover your face." Toddlers can be so literal sometimes. |
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| Somehow "pose with your lollipop" translated to "pretend you are an alien visiting earth and you've never seen a lollipop before". |
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| Aaaannnd we never did get a good one with the candy props. This pic never saw the light of the social media post until now. |
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| For realz, I laugh out loud every time I see this one. The goal was to straddle the log and lean heads out alternating left and right directions so we could see each face. Logan didn't quite have his balance, but Henry is hanging on to him for dear life, because he's not going down like that! Everyone else is watching the action, too distracted to pose. |
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| Never did get a good one of these either... he gone! |
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| Finally! Pin worthiness! Our standard went from 'let's have epic props/pose' to 'let's just get them together with eyes open and pleasant expressions'. #winning |
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