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Abigail's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 10/13/02 -------------------- 4/17/02 3/15/02 2/4/02 1/15/02 9/14/01 8/16/01 7/26/01 7/20/01 7/7/01 4/17/01 4/17/01 12/5/00 10/25/00 10/14/00 7/12/00 6/21/00 6/7/00 5/31/00 5/23/00 5/17/00 5/9/00 5/3/00 4/25/00 4/19/00 4/12/00 4/4/00 3/28/00 3/22/00 3/15/00 3/7/00 2/29/00 2/28/00 2/23/00 2/15/00 2/9/00 2/4/00 2/2/00 1/26/00 1/25/00 1/18/00 1/11/00 1/4/00 12/28/99 12/21/99 12/14/99 11/1/99 10/28/99 10/21/99 10/5/99 9/29/99 9/1/99 8/1/99 7/1/99 6/1/99 5/1/99 4/1/99 -------------------- Abigail's Introduction

April 12, 2000

Lena and Liberty will be one year old on April 17th. I just can't believe it. I really can't believe it. I can't believe we all survived!

We had never taken Lena and Liberty to a studio to have their pictures taken until this past Monday. I thought there would be no way to get them both to smile and sit still while a stranger tried to photograph them. Besides, we take sooo many snapshots. But we decided that we should do it for their one year birthday. I was dreading it. I knew it would be difficult, but I finally sucked it up and took them in. Also, my dad and step mom bought the cutest little happy birthday hats for them to wear in their pictures. They gave me those hats with the request that the girls wear them in at least one of their one year professional pictures (hint, hint). Fine. I took the gentle hint that it was time to get it done.

My sister and her 2-year-old daughter, Riley, came with me to help out. I thought we could go at a time when I knew Lena and Liberty would fall asleep on the 45-minute drive and wake up fresh and ready to smile. HA! Do you think that they remembered that they like to sleep in the car? Do you think they remembered that they were very tired? I told them that they were going to need their rest because they were going to get their pictures taken, but do you think they listened to me? Nope. Liberty fell asleep 5 minutes before we arrived at our destination. Lena was angry that she was tired and she knew that I was using the car to manipulate her into falling asleep so my day would be easier. She will not be manipulated!

Anyway, we were able to go right on in and start smiling but my precious little angels ; ) don't enjoy the company of strangers. The photographer was a stranger. Liberty was okay to begin with so I took Lena out and nursed her while my sister stayed with Liberty. She was perfectly calm. Calm--not happy, not sad, not excited, not giddy, not mad, just calm. She enjoyed that the photographer was shaking things in front of her face and making funny noises. She just wasn't amused by it. So there were about a hundred pictures of Liberty staring calmly into the camera. Not bad, but no big Liberty smiles either.

I brought Lena back in and sat her next to Liberty on the platform. Lena didn't think that was such a good idea, what with that stranger being so close. I was finally able to have Lena sit still and look in the general direction of the camera. The look on her face can only be described as utter suspicion. To make a long story short, there were about a thousand pictures for me to choose from. I chose nine and only one of them has a smiling baby looking right at the camera. One of them has a smiling baby looking somewhere else, and seven of them have either a suspicious baby, a calm baby, or both. Now I know why I put this off for a whole year. I think the next time I hire somebody to take pictures of Lena and Liberty will be their wedding day. Hopefully, they won't be afraid of the camera person.