Going to the West Side

This week has been a bit rough.  Madeline and I both came down with horrible colds (I went through three big boxes of tissues and she had a low-grade fever) for the whole week.  The weather being so cold did not help, except to say that when you know it feels like -23 degrees outside, you don't feel quite as bad about not getting to leave the house.  After 4 full days of being shut in, we took our first outing out to Westlake to have her picture taken and visit Sanjay, Nicole, and baby Pax.  My mother won this free photo shoot and a free 8X10 photograph in a frame.  We had already rescheduled once and since she seemed to feel a bit better, we decided to go for it.  

Big mistake.  The photographer was a very nice man and judging by the photos hung all around his studio, very talented as well.  When we got there he was just finishing up with a customer.  She saw Madeline and proceeded to poke her cheeks.  Then she said, "ok, come to me" and actually took her from Alex.  I knew she wasn't going to steal her, but all the same, you don't just hold random people's kids.  The whole thing made me very uncomfortable.  

Then it was time for the photo shoot.  We started off strong, plenty of smiles.  After we tried to adjust the position, things took an abrupt downslide.  For some reason that I still don't know, she started screaming.  Not crying, screaming!  She was histerical.  Like she had just gotten her shots.  She wailed for a long time.  Long enough that we decided to cancel the rest of the shoot.  I think the photographer felt terrible.  We felt bad, too.  But, the baby would not stop crying.  Her face got red and blotchy and her voice was actually becoming hoarse.  It was very stressful.  I just don't know if it was part of her illness or if was the overstimulation of the lights and everyone trying to get her to smile.  Bottom line, I never want to take her to get her picture taken again--but I will because she is too cute not to.

After that we went to see Sanjay, Nicole, and baby Pax.  He is so well-behaved and giggly.  Pax was a very easy-going baby.  He and Madeline were again doing the same hand motions at the same time because they are the same age.  Unfortunately, opposite naps, Madeline whining, and forgetting our camera prevented us from having a photo for the blog, but hopefully, they will visit us soon, and we will do better.  We really enjoyed our time with them, despite Madeline not being her "Maddy Best".