Alex, two years in "official" pictures

I like to have an "official" picture for every big age. 

We had the official newborn

We had the official three months (which I unfortunately have misplaced the CD containing the larger versions of these pictures):

The official six months:

The official nine months:

And the official one year:

I have to admit, I've never been completely satisfied with any of his official portraits.  I took him to a popular children's portrait studio hoping they'd be able to finesse a smile out of him, being professionals and all, and, strictly speaking, they did, albeit a fake smile.  My overall feeling of these pictures is he looks like a bit of a dork.  A cute dork, mind you, but still a dork.  Which is a shame because I dropped at least $200 for a sitting and prints for each one.  His one year photo is the only one I really like.

This year I decided I would do my best to capture an "official" portrait of two year old Alex myself.  This task proved harder than I anticipated as all I've been able to take pictures of lately is the back of his head as he runs away.  But I was on a mission.  I dressed him up and took him out to the International Peace Gardens and spent an hour and a half chasing him around and tried to coax a real smile out of him.   By the end of our adventure, he and I were covered in dirt and I'm pretty sure he'd eaten about a half dozen pebbles, but we got this:

I had it printed out at Inkleys (by far the best when it comes to printing digital photos) and hung it up on our wall.  I love it.  He's cute, he's smiling, and it only cost me $15 to print out 2-8x10's, 3-5x7's and a 4x6. 

To see the other pictures from our adventures in toddler portrait photography, go here: