Zoning Out for the Holidays (photos, that is)...

Yesterday my grandmother and I took Katelyn and her baby sister, Ashley, for their holiday photo session. It was also Ashley's 6-month picture (she will be 6 months old at the end of the month). It certainly was an interesting experience.

I had been a little worried about how Katelyn would react because she was NOT happy at her 2-year photo session, although she had never had an issue before. I fully expected the blood-curdling screaming and crying and I was anticipating walking away without photos of my beautiful little girl. However, what happened next was unexpected and quite interesting to witness.

When we first approached the photo area, she began screaming and crying and clinging to me like a koala bear. She did NOT want to sit for the picture, even though her baby sister was perched happily (as usual) on the stage and smiling at her. Katelyn was repeating, "Mama, bye bye, Nana," desperately resisting to pose for the pictures. I then took out her beloved Giraffe and asked them to take his picture so that Katelyn could see him on the screen. She still cried, but she was interested in looking at Giraffe on TV.

Then all of a sudden, it was like someone flipped a switch. She stopped crying and just zoned out. It was like she went into her own little world. She was no longer scared, it seemed. However, she was so zoned out that it seemed that she was no longer aware of her surroundings, which made it virtually impossible to get her to look at the camera or smile. She did not respond when the photographer was clapping, banging, singing, shouting, squeaking toys, etc., except that she would occasionally repeat what they would say or she would start saying random words, "Wow, Mama, up, clock, ding, ding, ding." She also would immediately yell, "Mama!" if I tried to get up since I was sitting right next to her. That was the only thing that she seemed to notice.

Now, I have witnessed Katelyn zoning out and staring off into space before, but this was the first time that I saw her go from one state to the other. It was just as if someone had flicked a switch and off she went.

Needless to say, there are no pictures of Katelyn smiling, but that is perfectly fine with me because the pictures that we got capture the essence of Katelyn beautifully. I always tell the photographer not to focus on getting her to smile because she hardly ever does for pictures, and that is fine with me because she smiles and laughs off camera all of the time, and that is all that matters to me.