Anyone seen the other shoe? Oh, right. It dropped.

I was having trouble deciding how to begin this entry, so I asked Brian to 'sum up' today's photo shoot and tell me the first thing that came to his mind.

"Alcohol," he said.

Hmmm. Yep. I could go with that.

First of all, and I have no doubt that this contributed to the disaster, I made a huge parenting faux pas, which I unfortunately did not realize until 3:38 in the morning. Several weeks ago, Krisita, the Media Relations Specialist with Hanger Orthotics asked me what time of day would be best to 'shoot' the babies.

"Oh, definitely morning!" I say, as confidently as I could.

And so, 8:00-10:00 was our scheduled time. MISSOURI TIME. People, that's 6 - 8 TUCSON TIME, of which we had to awaken the kids at 4:30 in the morning THEIR TIME. If you know my kids, you know they are late sleepers and it never bodes well when we have to actually wake them up, which was the case today. And when I say we had to wake them, I mean we had to physically jostle their sweet, warm jammied bodies nestled all snugly in these plush hotel pillows.

Party foul #1.

We left our hotel and headed just a few miles away to the Hyatt, where the photo shoots were being held.

With cups of dry cereal in hand, we made our way through the lobby to the Chicago Ballroom.
As soon as we arrived, we did our introductions, met the photographer, the author, all the Media/PR people and lots of other people whose names are escaping me due to the disaster that was.

I don't know what is was, or what set it off, but almost as soon as we brought the kids around to the set, Ethan lost his mind. That kid is definitely aware of things that are not his normal and the fact that he was being asked (by 10 people easily) to sit on a box and smile is SO not his normal. And as such, he wanted no part of it.

Folks, this was tough one to navigate. I was teetering on a see-saw of uncertainty as to how to 'fix' the situation. Should I go with the super caring, loving mom who might calm him and make him sit agreeably, should I go with stern, loud voice mommy and yell at him to make him sit, should I try and make him giggle, should I leave the room completely? Should I pass him to Brian to try and 'Dad' some sense into him? I was at a loss and frankly, we tried EVERY. ONE. OF. THESE. APPROACHES. To no avail.

When I tell you that the photographer earned her money today, I mean, she earned it. As you might imagine, everyone was outwardly so caring and trying to reassure us that it was fine, they'd get a photo, etc. etc. But I'm telling you, even they eventually resorted to the idea that 2 happy kids and one crying might be okay in a photo, cuz really, that's real life. But even still, we could NOT get Ethan to even stand or sit on the box long enough to even look unhappy. He'd throw himself face down and cry. And I'm pretty sure that is not the image Hanger is going for in their new ad campaign!

I took these photos during our 'banishment period.' Brian and I were trying to stay out of sight, with only a partition separating us from the wee models. There was a crack in the partition just wide enough to get the camera lens through.

In case you were unsure, that is Ethan on the left. :)

Sarah, the hair and makeup gal doing her best to herd the cats.

Funny how much you can love em, even when they're uncooperative. Which reminds me, lest you thought Ethan was the only one having a fit, rest assured he was in good company. Hunter and Colton also took turns throwing themselves on the floor, crying out for mommy and daddy. Oh yes, it was good times, people.

We had people fetching gummy bears, and oreos and Nilla wafers as bribery. We had Kung Fu Panda playing on the iPad, we had Toy Story playing on the laptop. We had Woody himself dancing on the heads of everyone around just in case it might result in a smile.

Let me make this simple.

It did not.

Until....they gave him something he was interested in. The handheld remote that sets off the flash-and has buttons he can push.

Hello Jekyll. Goodbye Hyde.

Not even the same kid. He was charming it up with his new powerful device. And thank God, because the deodorant I applied at 5:00 in the morning was long gone. Inside, I was at my wits end, feeling horribly that Hanger had been so gracious to fly us all out there and ask us to be a part of this great book, and we coudn't even provide them with one good photo. (Well that's not entirely true actually, because if you could've seen the photos she took, you'd be amazed. She has some serious talent.

The beauty of it all is that amidst all the chaos of chasing crying kids, it was still a whole lot of fun! I am so grateful that we were given this opportunity.

Colton's turn to throw a fit.

The ladies of Hanger!

Jennifer, Jennifer & Krisita!

Thank you for the fun day!

They were sad to see Krisita go! She's got movie star status with them. Especially after entertaining them for an hour while we interviewed with the author of the book, Bob Parks.

Finally, after they'd been set free we opted for lunch a walkway over at the Crowne Center...specifically at the CRAYOLA CAFE!

How fun is a crayola store?? The boys had fun with magnetic tic-tac-toe.

Hunter, the artist, drew some pictures.

How cute! It's like they're in kindergarten!

And I shall be the teacher!

Unfortunately, all the excitement of the day left lil Miss fast asleep at the restaurant. Before she ever saw food. :(

And after a few bites, she was joined by Coco.

Sleepy Bunchkins.

So we came back to the hotel, took a 3 hour nap (all of us) and then headed out on the town. Downtown Kansas City in the evening was HOPPIN!

(Hunter took the next two photos)

This is us attempting the real reason Brian agreed to come to KC. Jack Stack Barbeque. Unfortunately, there was a 90 minute wait. Uh, no. But fortunately, we were able to order everything we wanted in just 10 minutes for carryout! SCORE! It was totally worth the trip!

Please humor me and gawk at my injury.

Our hotel. The Hilton President.

After dinner, we went out on the town, on foot. We were hoping to check out some cool city park or something.

JACKPOT!!

My feet were enjoying the grass.

A poor attempt at a 'timered' picture. Clearly it was too far away for the flash to work.

And then we let the wild jackals run around the hotel room to cool off their little bodies!



Good night friends! It was crazy, stressful, awesomely fun day! I wouldn't trade it for anything!