I went to CVS this morning to get my baby a passport photo, and little did I imagine how long it was going to take!
First of all, 3-month old babies don't stay still in general when you try to sit them up (since they can't sit up on their own). Then I had to devise all sort of creative ways to hold him so that he'd be facing the camera but I wouldn't appear in the photo.
I tried sitting him up on my shoulders... too tall for the photographer. I tried holding him at the waist from the side as he "sat" on a stool... too short to capture the mandatory white background. Then we put a box on top of the stool and sat the baby on the box while I held him from the back, and I hid behind the stool... when the baby wasn't wriggling about, he was opening his mouth too wide and drooling, and the computer wouldn't accept the photo. We then switched to a larger box for more stability, and I kneeled in front of the stool, but then the baby would look down at me and not look at the camera.
I was starting to feel very impatient and unreasonably desperate, and the young woman who was helping us suggested that we switch and that I take the photo so that the baby could look at me. I don't know how many takes later, it finally worked!
This experience was a reminder that things never necessarily go the way that you want them to go, but with a little ingenuity and trying many small shifts, success is possible.
Discussion questions: 1) Have you tried something recently that has proved to be more challenging than you expected? 2) What small shifts can you experiment with to help you move in the direction of your goal?
