Smiles

There are times when I try and try to get my kids to hold still, look at the camera and smile at me. Not very often, but every once in awhile.

More times than not I prefer the candid expressions or capturing them in their element where they don't even know I am taking a picture. I think it tells more about their personality and the reality of their little lives than a posed picture.

But, there are definitely times when I would like them to look at me and smile their pretty smile. I like to capture those moments when they are doing something for the first time, or for the first day of school or when they look especially cute that day. Or perhaps a family picture, or sitting on Santa's lap, or after the dentist when you want to see their clean white teeth.

Why is this so hard? Why do I get so frustrated trying to get my kids to look at the camera and smile for these occasions? Is it really that hard? For me, for my boys, it is.

Until I figured out the trick.

Apparently shopping at Old Navy and finding a beanie that is marked down to $1.07 and bringing it home to put on your son when it is the end of July and over 105 degrees outside will get you that award winning smile you've been asking for. Who knew?


There may not be a "story" to this picture that I can tell him about one day. It wasn't a memoriable day. It wasn't the first of anything. Heck, the back drop is boring and he doesn't even match.

But at least one day he will see the smile that he really smiled when he was three.

The smile that makes me smile right back.