First Child Privileges

My mother-in-law has a hallway lined of portraits of her children taken at two years of age. Of course, ever since I was a silly, day-dreaming girlfriend I couldn't wait until we could start our own hall of Harrington two-year-olds.

Since Ryan is a privileged first born, he will probably be the only one of our undetermined number of children who gets his pictures taken within a month of turning two. Lucky you, sweet boy. It makes up for all the snow-covered driveways you will have to shovel before we spring for a snow blower for your younger siblings. I left Conor with our favorite Becca and David. I told Ryan we were going on a date, just the two of us. His reply was, "Going on date! I get crackers!" Hmm. Crackers! We must be raising a cheap date.

It went about as well as I expected it to so it is a good thing I had very low expectations. Very, very low. From his running through the lingerie section shouting, "Mama! Boobies!" to a loud narration of his bodily functions in the not very clean bathroom store to his many attempts to get past the barricade blocking him from joining another family's portrait, I was ready to just accept any photo that captured the little firecracker with both eyes open.

Okay, that's not really true. I threw every bribe in the book at him to somehow get that stubborn boy on the background. And I won.

Here's the framer that has yet to be framed ... or printed:

Two years old captured for all of eternity.

We just went to a mall photographer because as much as I love the candid, outdoor photography that all of the best child photographers do, I just wanted a classic portrait for this budding hallway series of mine. I want them all to match with black backgrounds and simple clothes ... but hopefully they don't all match Ryan's stubborn camera refusal that he gets from a certain someone I know. 

Ahem, Chris.