Baby Photos At The Supermarket!

While the older two kids were away on holiday, lovely fiance accompanied me to our local Morrisons to do the weekly shop instead of doing what he normally does, which is leave it to me to trawl around with the toddler in the trolley while he has a round of golf. On this one occasion we are accosted as we walk through the door by a smiling young man offering to take our small daughter's photo (for a local radio competition) and take advantage of an associated offer of prints at a fixed price. Looking beyond him I could see a tiny area in the supermarket foyer where he'd set up his kit, with the obligatory fluffy blanket on a table on which he presumably expected the small one to sit still. Mindful that our small daughter has to be restrained to keep her in one place longer than a few seconds, I immediately politely refused without even stopping the trolley, however my words 'no, thanks', were still hanging in the air when I heard lovely fiance agree to take up the offer and turned to see him lead the way towards the mocked-up studio. (When questioned later about his blatant disregard for my refusal, lovely fiance cited the fact that the guy had used the word 'free' when speaking to us and so he chose to overrule me!)!

The photographer lost no time in taking our details and indicating that we should plonk the small one onto the furry table. As lovely fiance lifted her from the trolley I noticed a stain on the front of her dungarees obtained earlier in the day at lovely fiance's mum's, where she had spied an opportunity and absconded with one of the chocolates from a box that had been left open on the table (you can tell this was a toddler-free house). I chose not to point this out though, secure in the knowledge that our daughter would never sit still for long enough anyway that the guy could take an adequate picture of her, and that in five minutes we would be back in the salad aisle.

How wrong I was. The guy was truly gifted. The small one looked at the fluffy rug underneath her with interest and within seconds he launched into a quickly improvised game of peekaboo, using one of his promotional leaflets and much repeating of her name. The small one smirked, then grinned, then (even now I can't believe it) leaned into the camera and smiled adorably. Lovely fiance and I were both awestruck. In two minutes it was all over, and she was back being held down in the trolley while he showed us four perfect shots of her on his computer. We were told to come back in a few days' time to choose the pose we wanted entered into the competition, and to take up our option of purchase of further pictures if we wished.

Yesterday we went back for our viewing and have returned home with a selection of fabulous pictures in which our insane toddler looks totally angelic (except for the chocolate stain). When it came to selecting the pose for the competition, lovely fiance showed exceptional interest, adamant as he is that his daughter is the most beautiful child in the UK, until the bloke mentioned that the winner would be chosen 'at random.' On questioning him further it turns out that in previous competitions, certain families have fiddled the phone vote by calling multiple times for their child, and so it's considered fairer to do a random selection! Lovely fiance was aghast, intending as he had to call multiple times for his child. So now we await the random result which should be revealed later this week! I will keep you posted if the small one turns out to be a winner!