Runion Soup: Total Meltdown

Despite outward appearances and what some might think, things are not always perfect in the Runion Household. An example is a recent Saturday morning which had been planned for quite some time. It was Lilah Grace's 6 month photo session and I couldn't have been more excited. I have been planning for this since before she was born. I wanted to include all of the kids this time and had purchased all the appropriate big/little shirts for everyone to wear. I went to several stores finding the perfect ribbon to make the girls matching bows and spent countless hours online looking at photos and thinking of the perfect poses I wanted.

The morning finally rolled around and as usual we had our discussion with the kids of what was expected of them - how they would and would NOT act. This discussion took place at home as we were getting ready, in the car on the way to the location, and once again while we were on location. Everyone agreed to the terms and if all went well we would be off to Payton's school carnival for some fun after pictures.

It was a cold morning and the ground was really wet from a couple of rainy days and the morning dew. We told them not to run around or they would get wet but they did not listen so of course pants were soaked as were socks, shoes, and feet which did not sit well with Payton at all. We did Lilah's photos first because she was actually happy and smiling so we took full advantage of that. When time came for the kids to join her Payton had a total meltdown. I do not recall the exact events leading up to or during the meltdown (likely because I have blacked it out of my memory) but I do know that not a single decent shot was obtained of all 4 of our children together nor did we get any shots of us together as a family as hoped. It was so bad that Jay carried her off kicking and screaming. I manged to control my pending meltdown in front of our photographer but all bets were off once we were in the van headed out.

I will admit that I may have overreacted a bit and that I could have handled things better. At this time I will re-direct your attention to the beginning of this post where I explain how excited I was about this and how many HOURS I spent preparing. We had told Payton that if she was not good (we do have experience with this as it occurred the last photo session she was part of and really most big family events we have) she would not be able to attend her fall carnival. Well unlike the countless times we have threatened to do something but not followed through (mostly because we don't like to upset them but also because it causes inconvenience to us - aka lazy parents) this time I stood my ground. She went home with Daddy and cleaned her bedroom and the playroom by herself and was not allowed to do anything fun. This was not at all ideal since I was committed to working the festival and had the boys with me but I made it work and the boys had fun (they shouldn't be punished for something she did).

Okay so not to end on a sour note, my wonderful husband knowing how important this was to me, gathered the kids together and set them up in our front yard so I could attempt to take the pictures myself. I in no way did as well as Cindy would have done but at least it is something.