The next big time baby model ... or not

So, this one time Maeve and I were doing our weekly grocery shopping run to Kroger and she was probably around 6 months old at the time. As per usual, I was minding my own business as I accumulated items in the cart and Maeve was flashing her huge smile at anyone and everyone that would look at her. The next thing I know this lady says something along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I just have to ask... would you want free pictures of your baby taken? I do marketing with Picture People and we are looking for models and she would just be perfect." I smiled and a little hesitantly said "oh yeah, maybe" not completely sure what this was all about. I've always been skeptical of modeling and am not the type of person that really sees it as a good thing/fun. I myself most certainly would not be caught dead as a model, even if someone ever thought I was perfect for the job ... spotlight, no thank you! Especially in front of photographers I don't know! So even with all of the countless strangers that all day long from the minute she could smile have told Maeve how cute and happy she is, her doing any sort of modeling was not even on my radar. The lady continued to explain a little bit about it and told me I could email some lady if I was interested and then a couple more times before we parted said again "she'd just be perfect!!"

I told Adam about it later that night and his response was "Cool! Free pictures! Why not!" but still didn't do anything about it for awhile. The thought that her pictures could maybe potentially be used in any negative way just scared me away from it a little bit. After Christmas, I decided to just casually mention it to my mom and she warmed up to the idea and basically did agree that Maeve was perfect and that it could be a fun thing to do that could potentially segue into getting real gigs that maybe would pay something. As long as she was still little and had fun with it, why not? So, I decided to email the lady, then had my bro-in-law who is a lawyer read the release form I'd have to sign for her pictures to make sure nothing seemed bad about it. Eventually we signed up for a time slot, and at the beginning of March went and had the pictures taken.

Let's just say that it quickly became clear that modeling is NOT for Maeve, and it was a pretty uncomfortable experience for both of us. Girlfriend would not crack a smile for the longest time and just wanted to mess with all the props they wanted to so nicely be positioned around her. That's when I started to wish I had emailed the lady sooner before she became mobile! That would have been way better. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure the photographer and Marketing lady were questioning why in the world I would have thought she was fit for the job and also questioning that she was even a happy baby! I felt all this pressure to keep her still, constantly staging the props again that she was messing with, trying to get her to smile and NOTHING. Poor girl just wanted to do what she wanted to do!

Here are all the shots that they sent to me (with the exception of one, because when they got desperate they decided to put me in a couple of the shots and I was not expecting to be photographed and hadn't done my hair completely so it's pretty bad and I will spare you):

Of course I decided to match her... how could I not?

I was laughing to myself when I was looking through these because seriously out of 57 pictures total taken, 29 of which they sent to me, and the 28 that you see here, she is literally only smiling for real in 1 stinking picture. With a whole lot of unamused straight faces and even sad faces mixed in. Ha! Doesn't exactly represent my girl very well, but luckily some of them are still cute. Others I don't like as much for different reasons, especially almost all the guitar ones, those are a little cheesy in my opinion. The silhouette one is pretty cool though. Anyway, although I'm doubtful, you just may see Maeve in some advertising and if you're reading this, you'll have to let me know if you do!