Meet Captain America
Matthew and his school friends are already putting their creative and imaginative minds to work. They are each a different super hero; that’s what they call each other and that’s what they call themselves.
Matthew is Captain America. He has a shield that he uses to throw at the bad people and he has a ship that flies in the sky. His ship comes with missiles and guns that he can use to save people. According to Matthew, that’s what super heroes do, they save people.
Matthew’s school must be a very safe place, because I know there is an Iron Man and a Batman and Robin there as well!
Chickens
It’s funny the things that come up during portrait sessions. During Abby’s session, I asked her what she likes to eat and she said, “Chicken”. For some reason, chickens became very funny and entertaining. We talked about what color chickens are, what they say, how many legs they have and many other chicken facts…it didn’t matter what it was, if it was about chickens it brought out the giggles in Abby.
Of course, as much as I tried, I couldn’t convince Abby that chickens were blue or purple or that they said MOO. She’s too smart for me!
High Energy
Putting these two brothers in the same confined space equals a lot of energy bouncing off the walls!
Little brother, Ryder, is a mover! Although he had yet to master walking at the time of his one year session, he was a speed demon crawler. Hands down, knees down and full speed ahead. Watch out below, because if you’re not careful, he’ll definitely trip you up.
Older brother, Payne, is the talker and the controller. He enjoys being in the middle of things and, while he’ll do what you ask, he always has a suggestion or an idea to share with you. Of course, once we asked him to help us entertain little brother, he loved that idea and committed fully to being the high energy entertainer!
Mommy definitely has her hands full keeping up with these two handsome boys!
Monkey See, Monkey Do
When working with siblings, it’s helpful when you have an older sibling who listens fairly well, and a younger sibling who copies whatever the older sibling is doing. In the case of Adele and Robert, this is exactly what I had…I also like to refer to it as the “Monkey See, Monkey Do!”
Of course, when everyone is following my instructions perfectly, this works out to my advantage. When older sister, Adele, starts to get squirrely, then I end up with a couple of squirrels on my hands!
Luckily, we had just enough listening and cooperating to offset the goofy and silly!
Talking, Talking
At three years old, Joey is a talker! He loves to talk about anything and everything…we talked about Santa, Halloween, animals, dinosaurs, tractors, puppies, airplanes, football and even lizards…just to name a few!
If you ask him the right questions, he gets really excited and the stories just explode out of him! The best part is when you ask him a question that he has to think about, the faces he makes as he’s thinking are adorable…from scrunched up noses to staring off into space.
He definitely knows how to keep the entertainment flowing!
A Few Hurdles
Ethan has entered the next stage of teething. He has his front teeth and now he’s working on some more! The day of the session, his gums were giving him quite a bit of pain. His fingers were in and out of his mouth. One minute he’d be smiley happy, the next cuddled up on Mommy whimpering.
Although you really want kids to cooperate and work with you, it’s so hard to get frustrated when you know they’re going through so much pain, and there’s nothing you can do for it.
Add to the fact that Ethan lives in Texas and was just visiting for the weekend, making his schedule and normal routine a non-constant for the weekend. It was no surprise that, by the time we were done with the session, he was yawning, rubbing his eyes and twirling his hair.
Despite those few hurdles, with the added bribe of Goldfish crackers, riding on Daddy’s shoulders, dancing to loud music and playing with a ball, Ethan pulled through like a champ! Resulting in some great serious, teethy smiles and sweet expressions!
Every Which Direction
When you take a crawling seven month old, a two year old with a bit of an independent streak and a second grader, put them all in the same room, the result can be a bit chaotic!
Aidan, our second grader, was a huge helper! He was there to help encourage his little sisters to cooperate. He was right in the mix of it trying to get them to smile. When I asked him to do something, he did it right away. He was definitely the rock star of the session!
Morgan is two, and wants to do what she wants to do. At the beginning of the session, she would follow along with whatever big brother was doing, but it didn’t take her long to decide that she wanted to do her own thing. Whether that was to walk right in front of the camera while I was photographing her little sister, or to turn her back to us while I was photographing her.
Baby Sister, Alex, was having a rough morning. Based on the eye rubs and the finger sucking, I’m guessing she was tired and ready for a nap. We took multiple breaks to fill her belly with some milk and then pushed ahead. Thanks to Daddy and Aiden, we were able to coax some good smiles out of her!
Down to Business
After a little running around, a few excitedly told stories, followed by a few high pitched barks, some hair and fur touch ups, these four ladies were ready to get down to business!
I love these ladies, because there is no messing around…they are all about staying focused and getting right to work.
The only real challenge is getting them to move beyond the forced smiles…something very characteristic of all kids their age.
Playing Games & Bribing
When you have a two year old who is very determined and strong willed, you will do almost anything to get a little cooperation out of them. That usually means modesty goes out the window…I’ve been known to sing (no I can’t carry a tune), shake my booty (yeah, no coordination there either), make crazy animal sounds, play games and even break out the bribes!
To get Landon to cooperate, I quickly realized I was going to have to pull out the big guns. We played a little peek-a-boo to get him comfortable. Then we played a little game involving poking Landon in his belly button…which he found to be quite hilarious and entertaining. Lastly, when nothing else would work, I broke out his favorite candy…M&Ms. Boy, did those stop him in his tracks. “Please” became his word of choice.
Once outside, the only thing that made Landon pause was “breaking” and throwing leaves. He had an absolute blast crushing the leaves into teeny tiny pieces and spreading them all over the ground.
It was definitely a constant game playing, bribe giving session!
All About Food
Connor and I talked about a lot! We talked about animals, and Jayhawks, and Lightening McQueen, but it wasn’t until we started talking about food that the smiles started really coming out.
At three years old, he has yet to top thirty pounds. You would never guess that he has a love for food, but when the topic of food came up, his excitement level shot up!
It quickly became a game of word association. I would say pizza and he would say hot dog. I would say chicken nuggets and he would say french fries. It didn’t matter what the word was, it just mattered that it was food!
