theITbaby

the IT city, the I.T. Baby

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Baby’s first commercial photo shoot, sandboxing, poop strainer

Maggie at the Chubby Bunny Baby shoot
The *only* shot I have where one of the babies doesn’t look happy, and Maggie’s got her fingers in her ears as if to say “la la la, can’t hear crying”

Yesterday Maggie was part of an all-baby photo shoot for Chubby Bunny Baby Foods. I didn’t particularly feel confidant about the abilities of my baby to sit still and do product shots, nor did I expect it to be a fun experience, but I was wrong.

CBBF’s photo shoot was about 14 blocks away from us, so this was not a particularly inconvenient trip, it was right between nap times, and the entire time Maggie was getting photos taken of her she was in a particularly good mood being the center of attention and playing some game she didn’t quite understand but knew she was winning.

Two other babies dropped in for their shoots, and those oddly went pretty smoothly also. It was the least shriek-listening baby photo experience I’ve ever imagined. With the aid of some car keys and a duck pull toy that makes a rattle noise all the babies managed to have smiles on their faces while looking adorable and holding product properly.

This was not something I thought was even a possibility. One little boy got a bit upset for a short amount of time, but got over it. The little girl who I call Photoshop In Real Life got a wee bit annoyed near the end, but all went well. I’m expecting the pics are going to be adorbs, but don’t have ’em yet. Didn’t get a ton of cell phone shots due to rattling keys and doing some baby sideline work, but ah well.

Unfortunately the good times did not last too long. We’re pretty sure one of her last set of teeth is coming in, and there was drool a plenty coming later on. A refusal to eat much and a foul tempered baby hit with a hurricane force, and we finally resorted to some painkillers for the grump meister.

Not that we have anything against giving her pain killers, but sometimes it’s hard to recognize baby pain from just not getting baby’s way… until the drool fest started she appeared to just be wanting a nap.

Painkiller down, we decided to take her to a park where she met a two year old and played in sand for the first time. We haven’t kept her from sandboxes, but we haven’t actually seen any during most of her life. They just aren’t as prevalent as I recall them being when I was a kid.

Perhaps their popularity has diminished due to the absurd amount of cleanup required to get your child transported back home. We hadn’t planned on a sandbox, it just appeared, so when we got back to the car we threw a car seat cover in her baby seat, and when I got her back and on the changing table I ended up with a little sandcastle we had to deal with on the table. So yeah.

While playing with the two year old she managed to dump a shovel full of sand in her eye, and we had to flush it using a bottle of water and spit. Seemed to work pretty well, and crying baby was back to normal pretty quickly, although she did keep that shovel away from her.

Boone & Sons shoot
Depression-era maggie walking to her lunch bag outside of Boone & Sons

Post sandbox we went to a store that the sign looked depression-era, and so did maggie with the absurd dirt coating she was wearing. I tried to get a shot, but it just didn’t work … you can’t see dirt on a baby on a black background unless you’re closer… ah well.

When we got home it was obviously bathtime, and we had our second poop-strainer incident which left me sanitizing a serious chunk of bath toys.

There’s something about toys that suck water in to squirt it out that make them a complete target of disinfectant when someone drops off the kids at the pool.

Yeah, it was massive. And I was holding a very angry wet baby while ITMama worked at poop removal.

Parenting pro tip:  store unused pool toys outside of the baby tub or where the baby tub’s water could reach. Don’t be like us.

Post bath it was meltdown time. My guess is the hurting teeth and the fun of the day had done the baby in early, and she went down and slept 12-13 hours.

One random find for the day was that every baby involved the parents either had a baby-related business, blog, or were related to someone who did, thus leading me to believe anyone who reproduces these days starts a blog or baby business.

Paul King

Paul King lives in Nashville Tennessee with his wife, two daughters and cats. He writes for Pocketables, theITBaby, and is an IT consultant along with doing tech support for a film production company.