There are about a million reasons I didn't take Mila's two-year photos within a couple of weeks of her birthday. The reason I'm willing to say out loud is that my weekends were booked pretty solid all through May and June with photography sessions and travel. And it's true! I was super busy taking photographs of other people's kids, which is good because the reason I won't say out loud is that I'm scared of my own kid.
It's a real thing.
Give me any 2-year old in the world and I will capture that kid's personality in a photo. You might need to be patient, but I will get it. It's one of my favorite things to do.
My own kid, however, is a stinker mcstinkerface. She is the queen of not looking at the camera and y'all have seen her epic RBF. I have approximately 326234 photos of that face. It's cute and all, but it's not who she is when the camera isn't there, y'know?
This past weekend I finally ran out of excuses and was faced with the time to do a little photo shoot. There was an outfit picked out, the kid was fed and had napped, and the it was super hot out, which meant there were fewer people than usual strolling through Mellon Park.
So off we went.
It's worth noting that we had the walled garden portion of the park to ourselves when I took that photo. That is worth noting is because I have no shame when I have an audience. I have even less shame without one. As I clicked that shutter button, I was impersonating Peewee Herman, Elmo, a circus clown, and offering to buy Mila a pony if she would look at me.
She is not easily impressed, obviously.
And there it is! RBF!
I figured that I would have a battle on my hands, so I made a quick purchase on our way to the park. I snagged myself a bubble gun, thinking that I would get Mila's attention by shooting bubbles in her face.
It's like I haven't met the kid. I mean, I should have known what would happen.
Lesson learned: Mila will smile and make eye contact if she's destroying you with bubbles.
When I tried to turn the tables and take the bubble gun back, this happened. EVERY TIME.
This kid. She's a special sort of challenge.
But.
I have never met a challenge I wasn't willing to try to overcome.
You guys -- this is Mila. This is the photo that shows who she is.
