Smile!

*Day 154*

This is one of my favorite pictures of Logan. He has such an angelic look on on his face. And his eyes are so big. He was almost two in this picture, and it was hard to get this picture of him. But, not for the reasons you would expect of a two year old. He was very cooperative. The problem was the photographer. I was working for the school district, so I took Logan in to get his pictures on school picture day. Only the second time for him to sit in front of a photographer. (For the last time see Day 113: Logan the Ham.) And the guy kept ruining the picture by telling to him to smile. The problem with that is that Logan was just learning to smile on command. In case you don't know what it looks like when young children learn to smile on command, take a look at this....


This is Logan at about the same age when asked to smile. His face is scruntched up, his eyes are closed (although that may not be his fault entirely: Breinholt smile). Now, I'm not saying he doesn't look cute there. But, it's not quite the look you want for a posed picture. So, this guy kept telling Logan to smile, and this is what he would get. I just thought that his pictures wouldn't turn out that cute. I finally told him to just take a picture and not tell him to smile. This is what we got. He was cute enough without smiling.

Logan has been great for pictures ever since. (Except the ones that ended up at nap time and he wasn't happy to be there.) He has this little posed smile that is just totally cute. He'll sit down, do his smile and take a great picture. But, he still has problems with school pictures. They still ask him to smile. And he does his cute posed smile, then they tell him to show his teeth. That's not natural for him, so it can end up looking so forced. It's not as cute as his normal smile.


They made him show his teeth for his picture this year. I still think he's cute, but that's not his smile. When they send the papers home for school pictures there is a place on the order form where they ask if you have special instructions for the photographer. I almost wrote on it not to ask him to smile, just let him smile. I didn't want to sound too bossy, so I left it blank. Next year, I'm writing it. Just check out the difference. They did spring pictures. (Which I totally forgot about, even though Matt reminded me the night before. I didn't check his clothes, and I don't even think he combed his hair that morning.) He came home and told us that for these pictures, they got to do the "smile of their choice". He looks much more natural in this picture. So, I say, no more smiling for Logan in school pictures. He does better without it. (Besides, he didn't have any teeth to show in this picture.)