Smile!

Tomorrow is picture day at school. The big day when we try to spiff the kids up and hope they are in a good mood so that we get pictures worthy of display for the year.

I am not a big fan of the current system where you have to commit to the pictures you are going to purchase before they are even taken. If they are awful, I don't think I need the full package. I don't actually need the full package regardless of how stunning the pictures are. What I am going to do with 18 (!) 1 X 2 inch pictures of each child? Make stamps?

Poor Sprout had her palate expander installed today. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this piece of orthodontia (like myself until a few months ago), this is a contraption that is bolted to the roof of her mouth that will s...t...r...e...t...c...h her upper jaw over the next month so that all of her teeth eventually fit in her newly expanded mouth.

Apparently 3 weeks from now she is likely to have an enormous gap between her front teeth.
So I am glad the pictures are pre-expansion.

However, there is a bit of a drooling/slurping situation going on. Apparently it is difficult to swallow quietly and/or neatly with a metal device strapped into your face. So I am hoping she is able to smile normally and not slobbering all over herself in the picture.

Tater, on the other hand, has a lovely smile. However, he tends to look entirely freaked out in portraits. I don't know if he is scared of the photographers, or if he is concentrating so hard on smiling that he freezes up.

He also opted out of a pre-picture haircut. Which, in my opinion, was a questionable decision. But he said that if we just use "his spray" and he doesn't mess with it, he should be OK.

Don't even get me started on wardrobe decisions. I am hoping they are out of it in the morning when I thrust outfits at them, and that they don't question what they are given to wear. Sprout has been begging to wear the vest that Tater wore for his dance recital 2 years ago (gold brocade) to school. Tomorrow just might be the day that she decides it is finally show time...

I am on the edge of my seat to see how this all turns out.