Think I'll just take 'em myself from now on

Hello all. Hope this finds you well. It has been a long week in Heelenville. I guess it's just her age, but Caitrin's suddenly FAR less even-tempered than she's been heretofore. She's still mostly a sweet girl all day with me, and she talks about "Dada" nonstop! But for the past couple weeks she freaks out as soon as he gets home in the evening. She adores him...in typical fashion I'm the enforcer in her life and Sean's the fun one. So we are thoroughly perplexed by this. She cries and screams and assumes full tantrum posture. I sort of wonder if she maybe doesn't realize how much she misses Daddy all day, and then when she sees him at night it catches up with her and it's overwhelming. Just my theory. It's better on the weekends, sometimes, sorta. Not tonight. This, too, shall pass...right?!

Caitrin's at such a precious stage right now, what with her "wounded soldier" crawl, endless chanting of "Dada" and her new favorite word "naynay," and her utter fascination with toys. It was this that led us to decide our family needed to make a return visit to Sears portrait studio. Type A that I am, I spent hours on their website planning backgrounds and props, and then I went shopping and bought us all coordinating outfits. I was expecting this major family bonding experience where Caitrin would just charm the pants off everyone like she always does and we'd get some great photos of the three of us interacting. As with so darn many things, that was not to be. The studio was overbooked and we had to wait even though I'd set up our appointment several weeks ago. There were two very young ladies posing as photographers. Very sweet but not very experienced or ready to deal with a baby. Which was odd because the entire clientele seemed to be parents and little babies. I'm sure it doesn't help that Caitrin didn't nap terribly well this morning and was uncharacteristically cranky. And it seems that stranger anxiety is really hitting full force right now. Well, at first the photographer sat us all down to do group shots, and she kept poking at Caitrin with what she called a "tickle stick" (an industrial feather duster) to try to get her to laugh. No surprise to me, that didn't cut it. We sure don't do anything approaching that to get her cracking up, but then, she just randomly gets the giggles with us.

I guess the first girl felt like she was the problem, so she excused herself for a moment and said she'd be right back. Five minutes later, in walks the other girl, who seemed more comfortable with babies and reshot everything the first girl had done. Caitrin never really cracked one of her megawatt smiles, though, and got pretty spooked if Sean and I moved more than a couple feet away. Still, we did get some very cute shots that capture who she is at this point in her life. But I was really disappointed...they just used a plain white background and didn't offer us the option of any others or of using props. Worth it insofar as I'm unable to get shots of all three of us since I don't have a tripod, but since I know my girl and the expressions that best capture her character, I'll probably mostly do photos at home now. So Bug, if you're reading this, a higher-res camera might be a birthday idea.

Nana (Anne) babysat last night so we could see XF2 again. Want to be sure I do my part to encourage a third installment. Have had the closing-credits theme cranially tattooed ever since, and not complaining. Tomorrow is the third installment, incidentally, of our Hunt for the Heelen Fridge. Soooo interesting, I know. Should be in bed now, but Ephemeral beckons and I'm craving a brief mental flatline. Till soon. God bless.