The benefits of a snack, a nice sunny day, and a photographer no one is scared of

We went to Kiddie Kandids for the boys' birthday pictures, and the stars just seemed aligned against us. Seb acted like a wild man who'd never been in civilization before. Everything scared him: the camera, the feather duster, Winnie the Pooh---and this is the boy who yells "Thunder! Yay!" during rainstorms, kisses strange dogs, and says "Boom, Sebby, funny!" when he falls off the counter stool. He wouldn't let go of me (which is the opposite of his usual behavior), responded to everything with a desperate-sounding "noooooo!", and wouldn't even be fooled into driving a toy truck around in front of the camera. The moment I let go of him he fled out into the mall, pushing his stroller, and when I retrieved him he'd wet his pants, in spite of going to the bathroom happily several times right before the session :(

Abe, while cooperative, is so ticklish that when the photographer so much as looks at the tickly feather duster, he cringes back in his seat, throws up his hands for protection, and closes his eyes with laughter.

So we had a bunch of pictures of Seb crawling frantically out of the frame, Abe recoiling, Seb yelling "no!", Abe melting off of his seat in a helpless laugh-y pile, Seb looking alarmed, Abe grinning nervously, Seb glaring accusingly at the photographer, etc.

When we got home the boys had a little snack and played outside in the beautiful Fall-y weather for a while, after which pleasant interlude they happily (well, happily after being bribed with the promise of a piece of chocolate [Abe] and being able to push the camera button [Seb]) posed for some more pictures. And I even got some cute ones. Yay! (Now if only I was better at getting the lighting right!)