The Tessier Family Blog: Picture This!

Mommy and Daddy stood in the Target, facing the food court, and thought briefly, "we could leave here now, and no one would ever know we were here." Just then, I turned my macaroni and cheese smeared face in their direction and said "mommeeeeeee." They'd been caught.

Before we get to the food court, let's back up a bit, shall we? See, as mentioned in the below post, Aunt Julie and Noah were in town for a visit. Noah and I had been playing together a bunch at Grandma's, and Aunt Julie thought it would be nice if we could get a picture of all three grand kids together. She suggested that Mommy bring me to Grandma's on Friday and Aunt Catherine would bring Amelia in and we'd all go to Target for a picture. Seems easy enough, right? Well, looks can be deceiving.

Friday arrived, and it had been arranged for mommy to drop me off at Grandma's after lunch. Problem was, I decided 11:40 was the perfect time for me to take a nice, long nap. I woke up around 1:45, ate some lunch, and then we headed to Grandma's. When we got there, Noah was napping, and Aunt Catherine had to take Amelia to visit Uncle Luke's Grandma. Mommy headed back to work, and I hung out with Grandma and Aunt Julie. Then Noah woke up, but it was time for Amelia to eat. We finally made our way to Target at 5, in 2 cars. Mommy called Aunt Julie who said they were just on their way, and that she and Daddy should come meet us, which they agreed to do. Meanwhile, we all (Grandma, Aunt Julie, Noah, Aunt Catherine, Amelia and I) walked up to the picture section to start taking pics. Unfortunately there were no availabilities until 6:20. This was a problem for several reasons: 1.) Amelia was hungry again. 2.) I'm always hungry. 3.) Noah might have been getting hungry. 4.) Aunt Catherine had to drive back to New Orleans. 5.) Aunt Julie had a dinner scheduled for 7. We felt confident we could overcome these obstacles though, and it was suggested we go to the food court and get some food. It's at this point that mommy and daddy entered the scene. Here's what they saw:

Aunt Catherine in the corner feeding Amelia
Noah in one high chair, Me in another, Grandma between us with a spoon heading towards each of our mouths. Aunt Julie, attempting to unwrap some sort of food for one of us. Just then, everything changed. Amelia finished eating, and subsequently began to cry. Noah, cried out in sympathy. I smiled from ear to ear, and hungrily took another big bite of what they were calling macaroni and cheese. That's when I turned and saw them.

They hurried over and pointed out that it was 6:15, and that pictures were in 5 minutes. Aunt Julie headed over to find the photographer. Mommy began to clean my face, Aunt Catherine attempted to get Amelia to stop crying, and Grandma gave Noah some more food. Aunt Julie came back and said the photographer was nowhere to be found, then said she had to leave for her dinner. She and Daddy headed out to get Noah's car seat so he could come home with us. Mommy, Aunt Catherine, Amelia and I started towards the picture area to hold our spot. Grandma attempted to get Noah to stop eating so she could clean off his face. It was at this point that I decided we weren't enough of a walking disaster. I saw, glistening in the distance, a vacant cash register. It was calling to me with all it's shiny buttons and lasers. I took off at lightening speed, and forgot that I have clown size feet. I promptly tripped over them, falling face first to the tiles of the store. Mommy got there immediately, picked me up, and started to soothe me. I wasn't making any noise, not because I was unconscious, but because I was preparing the mother of all screams to be unleashed from my lungs. My face was completely red, my mouth was opened wide, and suddenly a bellow so loud, so fearsome, emitted from my lungs. We're certain it was heard in Gonzales. People turned from their shopping and stared. Mothers glared at mommy. Cashiers rolled their eyes and gnashed their teeth. It was at that point that mommy realized we had become "that family." That family you absolutely hate when you are grocery shopping. That family that you can't believe brings their screaming child into a store. That family that you look at smugly when you are a young college student, childless, carefree, and superior in every way, and think to yourself, "when I have a child, he won't ever run away from me and cause trouble like this in a store." Yes, we had become those people. When I stopped crying, I had a knot the size of a golf ball in the center of my forehead. When we got to the photographer's station, I sat in mommy's lap sniffling, and Aunt Catherine bounced around to keep Amelia calm. Just then Grandma walked up with Noah, who looked like he had reached his limit. Mommy turned to Aunt Catherine and said "what are we doing here." Aunt Catherine said, "I have no idea," and then burst into hysterical laughter, which promptly turned into tears. I don't think we've ever gotten out of a store so fast in our lives. All three kids were packed into their car seats and ready to go in under 2 minutes. We never even took a picture.

The next day we attempted to take some pics at Aunt Catherine's house. Here are some shots from that attempt. You can see how well it went over. And notice Amelia didn't make it into any of the shots.