2nd Birthday Pictures

This Saturday, September 10th, Tommy is turning TWO! We just had photos taken in daycare over the summer, so I wasn't sure if I was going to do 2 year birthday pictures, but since my Portrait Club membership at The Picture People was good through this past Sunday, AND they had a special offer going on where you got 6 sheets of photos for $18, I decided to make an appointment for Saturday afternoon.  They did a great job on the photos last year, and I wanted to get the most out of my membership, which I definitely did.  And I spent NOWHERE near what I spent last year...last year they saw "sucker" written on my face and brought out a huge framed portrait which of course I ended up buying along with extra shots of several of the poses.  This year, it was much easier.  All of the shots came out great and Tommy looked adorable, but it was easy to pick one shot for the $18, then one other shot for the free sheet I got as a portrait club member, and then one more shot to do thank you cards for his party.

My mom and niece Lexi were with us for the weekend, which was a good thing because I needed Lexi to help corral Tommy with me during the session, and then run around with him while my mom helped me select the photos (and make sure I did not go crazy and spend way too much money like last year)!

Of course, the best laid plans always fall through...our appointment was for 4pm, and I planned for Tommy to nap somewhere between 11:30 and 2:30, then we'd give him a bath so his hair was nicely combed. Why I thought he'd take a nap is beyond me...maybe because he took a three hour nap for me last Sunday, I assumed the "he's a bad napper on the weekends" phase was over? NO NAP. I would not even turn the TV on for him. Surprisingly, he amused himself, we colored, played some games, and then took a bath around 2:30. We were out the door shortly after 3pm, and not surprisingly, he fell asleep in the car on the 20 minute ride to the mall. We arrived early, so we sat in the car another 15 minutes or so to let Tommy nap a little longer. He was a little annoyed, but no crying, and willingly sat in his stroller, sunglasses still on him.

At first he was not too cooperative for the photographer and was very clingy with Mommy, but eventually after a few tricks that I performed (I may have leap frogged over the photographer to get Tommy to look at her), we ended up with some good shots.  Below are the results!  Note that they are scans, not originals, so not the clearest of images.  I refused to pay $150 for the CD of images, as they no longer email the pictures to you...probably because they realized some customers figured out how to pull the pics off the site to use on Facebook or blogs...not that I know how to do that, but I may know some people...

Tommy's official 2nd birthday portrait

Tommy's unofficial 2nd birthday portrait - in his truest form, jumping for joy

Birthday thank you card...my patriotic little boy - he would have been born on 9/11 via c-section except that he decided he wanted out just a day earlier (and we were totally fine with 9/11 as a birthday).

When I look at last year's photos, it's so amazing to see how much he has changed and grown. Here are last year's photos.  We thought he was so grown up last year...and this year, it's even more bittersweet to see how he isn't really a baby anymore.  I know, I know, he'll always be my baby!