photo day

One of my favorite fundraisers at daycare is 'photo day'; they bring in a photographer and we get lovely pro shots of our kids (admittedly with hokey 'seasonal' background props), and part of the proceeds go to the center.

I'm not usually too fussy about what the kids wear on regular school days, I try to make an effort for birthday parties and music class, but can swallow the feeling of "why is my child the scruffiest urchin in the room?" if it means we actually get out of the house and to the desired location almost on time.

But photo day, well that is on their permanent record, so I do like them to be dressed attractively. This morning Geekydaddy got Geekybaby up and dressed. I feel that we have a very egalitarian approach to parenting in our house, but even an incredibly involved, hands on 'co-parent' like Geekydaddy does not have 'photo day today' seared on his mind, and a cute outfit planned out days in advance. I just don't think it is a father thing. Except of course in two father families, where I can envision serious conflict over whether junior should sport an edgy 'urban baby' look from Diesel, or a wholesome, preppy J crew outfit. According to my 'adorable photo moment' plan, I redressed geekybaby in his Old Navy linen printed shirt and kahkis. At least he, at seven months, has no opinions on his clothing.

Geekygirl is a different story. Not only did I want her in something cute, but I wanted it to go with what her brother was wearing, for the must have cute siblings together picture they offer, in order to extract more cash from us. My options were severely limited by the renewed vigour with which we have been pursuing potty training (big girl undies were worn to daycare this week!). Many acceptable outfits were in the laundry basket. But we found something reasonable, her only clean pair of leggings with a pretty pink tunic, worn proudly with those big girl underpants.

It was not a usual morning, our garden remodel team were round to do the final walk through. In all the excitement poor Geekygirl wet her pants. This left me with the dilemma of having no more clean leggings for her to wear. Trying to convince her to wear jeans or a dress with 5 minutes to leave the house felt insurmountable. In desperation I pulled a pair of leggings from the laundry basket (not peed on, just regular once worn grubby, I hasten to add) and grabbed the cute corduroy Osh Kosh tunic that went with them. I don't think she saw me, I hope not, if she did my frequent argument of 'you can't wear that, it is in the laundry' is not going to fly anymore! This was actually the outfit I had wanted her to wear had the leggings been clean, so I was quite satisfied with how the outfits turned out.

I discovered when I picked the kids up today that though Geekybaby was photographed today, and they did the sibling shot too, Geekygirl gets her solo photo tomorrow, Guess I'd better go and do some laundry!