Happy Birthday!

Joey is 4. My baby. Four.
That's much much older than 3 I'll have you know, and he's now a kid, no longer a toddler.
Of course he's a kid in a diaper still, but we're working on that.

I took his picture today to mark the occasion. It was an exercise in frustration, because he won't look at the camera, he looks everywhere except the camera. I gave him a teddy bear to play with and he ended up rolling on the floor and rocking back and forth so fast that every picture had motion blur.

So I had to pull out the clever tactics.
I often do this with Matthew, because he's the same way; he either won't look at the camera, or else he's scrunching up his face, sticking out his tongue and mooning the camera. Honestly, he's such a treat on picture day at school - more than once we've opted for retakes.
I've found the best way is not to ask him to pose, but to have a 'serious' conversation with him, and then in the middle of it just yell "Hey who farted - PEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!" - in which case he'll erupt into a fit of laughter and I capture the real Matthew who is beyond photogenic if I do say so myself. He'd be a great model, except for the fact that he's not cooperative in the least. But physically - it really is hard to take a picture of him where he doesn't look exceedingly gorgeous - and I"m not biased, because his grandma says so too.

Anyway, back in February at my last awesome girls weekend in Boston, I had picked up a paper stand and a roll of seamless paper. I have yet to break it open and try it out - just because life kept getting in the way as it often does. So today I figured I'd break it out - It's really been too long since I got a decent picture of the boys.

Tricked Joey into looking at me, and got this:


And then using my best child psychology tactic and telling Matthew that he absolutely could not sit on my paper and to be very careful because I don't want him to sit "Right here" - he begged and pleaded and so I 'let him' sit right exactly where he'd catch the best light, and lo and behold, yell 'fart' press the button and presto chango - lovely pic of one fine looking boy:


Sometimes it's too easy hahahahahah.
Not often.
But once in a while - I can outwit them.

Duncan is much more difficult because he has the patience of a 2 yr old (which means that at 7 he stays still for about .264 seconds, which is not really long enough for a clear photo). And because he's a little more wise to that child psych crap. Tell him not to pose for a pic and he'll gladly go back to playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii.
I'll have to find a new tactic for him tomorrow...
They get older and wiser - but so do I.