Riya’s First Sticky Fudge Photo Shoot

We did it.

We got through Riya’s very first photo shoot and despite all the ups and downs of the day, if you ask her today if she had fun she would shout a very big YES.  I don’t know how on Earth she suddenly has this view of it, because if you were a little fly on my shoulder that morning you would definitely not have seen her showing any signs of her having fun.  Except maybe after the first Easter Egg.

That morning was a blur of waking up late and sitting in hours of rainy traffic before pulling up to Seth’s parents house to drop off Knox and fetch the girls to take them to school (they had slept over the night before – in hindsight it was probably not the best idea).  After debating about the best way to do this in my head – I wanted to take Kyla to school and leave Riya at home because there was no point in her going for an hour before I fetched her.  And heaven forbid that they had outside time and Kyla could not find Riya.  That would have seen that little school implode. – I decided that it would be best for Kyla to stay with Ga and Knox while I pop out with Riya to the shoot.

So that’s what we did.  She was excited to go to her “playdate” and when we arrived she was very relaxed and chatty.  We sat outside in the cold waiting for them to open up for us, and while we sat we chatted about life and what we could see.

The venue was a beautiful old school building with 3 different levels.  At the bottom was where they had all their clothes set up on cute little hangers and in the rooms was where they had set up all the shoot props.  It looked gorgeous.  All vintage.  All beautiful.  On the next level was all their props for other shoots.  It looked like the inside of a vintage toy shop.  I had to stop myself from going inside and unleashing Riya on it.

We got our first outfit to put on and got to trek up the steps to get changed.  In the room we met up with two other moms who had babies already dressed up in their gorgeous gear.  Surprisingly it was really easy to get Riya into her outfit – probably because it was so beautiful and she could “see her arms”.  Once it was on we took a walk about until they were ready for us.

They had set up the room with shelves filled with vintage dolls, cats, dogs, brushes and mirrors.  I was asked to sit next to her, to reassure her and then to slowly inch away.  And she was great.  She really looked like she was having a good time and I think that they got some good shots, because from my angle she looked stunning.  She even wore a feather crown – because a true model wears random stuff on their heads.

But that’s where the easy goingness ended and it all got real.

After that they wanted us to change her outfit into jeans, a tshirt, tutu and jacket.  Unfortunately she wanted nothing to do with it, except the tutu which kept falling off because all my children seem to have my midget genes.  Once I had swopped most of the clothes for smaller sizes (the jeans down to a 18-24 months!!) I managed to get the jeans, tutu and tshirt on, but there was just no way she was putting on the jacket.  Mostly because I gushed at how beautiful it was when I saw it and also because it wasn’t pink.

Then I had to become what I had promised myself I would not.  The bribing mom.  The one that totally used easter eggs as temptation.  And it worked.  Before getting the first egg she had to put on the jacket.  Which she did.  Then after the egg she stood in the right place and I had to play our game of over exaggerated “what can you see” and “can you find” and what colour do you think that is” and “no you can’t wear that pretty cat mask because it’s actually mine”.

And then it was over.  Wham, bham, thank you mam.  It only took an hour and a half from start to finish.  We were blessed with this gorgeous stash of clothes and we went on our way…   To the Spur.  Because, uh, I caved and promised her that too…  Bad parent.  And we didn’t even fetch Kyla because Ri just really wanted to be alone there and even though I think she regretted not getting Kyla she was definitely not going to let me know that.

So there you go.  It was awesome.  And apparently she would do it again and again.  So thank you Sticky Fudge for the loving and welcoming people, for being so quick with the shoot and for the pretty clothes.  I can’t wait to see the pictures!