Smiling Faces! Sometimes...

Good news!  We finally had faces free of bruising long enough to make it to a photo studio!  Not-so-good-news- most of our portraits turned out something like this:

 The really kind woman working at the studio just wasn't a natural with kids.  She kept scaring Etta by yelling "Boo!" really loudly in her face, causing Etta to scrunch up her brow in concern.  And rather than making Tye smile, she asked Tye to say "Cheese."  Which resulted in this.

It could be worse, but when I look at this shot all I see is a girl being coached- like Honey Boo Boo and little pageant girls.  Not what I was going for.  Still, some of the shots turned out well.

In the end, I'm just glad we made it to the studio to record Etta at this age, whether the photos are stellar or not.  These portraits look even worse after revisiting Tye's here. 

The very next day, as we were walking through Brooklyn, strong winds blew a tree branch down and it landed on our heads.  As I was leaning over Etta, making faces at her, the branch hit the back of my head and broke into two pieces, scratching Etta's head as it fell to the ground.  I'm fine, but Etta started crying deep, choking sobs immediately, a cry I haven't heard since she was an infant.  She was terrified and hurt, but fortunately not seriously. She has a few light scratches on her cheek and a deeper one, with a bruise below, on her temple (left through her hat even).

It was a really scary experience for me, too- to suddenly have something huge hit me, then Etta, and then hear Etta cry like she did.  Wow.  Once Etta and I both calmed down, I started thinking of all the what-ifs.  What if I hadn't been leaning over Etta and the branch had hit her tiny head straight on?   What if it had been bigger?  I decided to just be grateful for our safety.  And grateful that we had already had portraits taken.