Yesterday I took Bertie to get his one year pictures done (only a month late, more on that later).  I went to Picture People at the mall.  My experience was terrible.  Here is a copy of the letter I'll be mailing tomorrow:

To the manager,

I wanted to inform you of an unfortunately disappointing  experience I had at your store.  

On Monday, 30 March I went in, in the afternoon, to make an appointment for the next day.  I was helped by Carl.  He was nice, helpful, and seemed interested in the pictures for my son's first birthday, and had some helpful suggestions for outfits or props to bring from home.  

I came in the next day (31 March) for my son's appointment, and was helped by Vanessa and Michelle initially.  They had to get all my information again, despite having provided it the previous day.  Michelle was my photographer.  Things started out ok.  She didn't really have a lot of suggestions for positioning him.  She was not good at getting his attention, or having him look the right way.  I will concede that  my son was not his normal happy self that day, but he was not overly uncooperative, especially at the beginning of the shoot.  As the session went on, his patience ran out.  She didn't suggest we take a break, or do anything that might make him happier.  I knew there wouldn't be a lot of workable images at the end.  

Towards the end, it became obvious that my son wanted to nurse, I told him I would nurse him once we were finished.  At the end of the shoot Michelle said “We have a bathroom if you want to nurse him”. I ignored this.  Once we were all packed up, and she was going to edit the images, she again said “The bathroom is just down the hall, so you can nurse him.” At this point I said “I don't feed my son in the bathroom.” It seems like your store should have enough babies/nursing mothers come in that your employees should be aware that suggesting that a mother feed her baby in the bathroom is gross, and insulting.  Not to mention California Civil Code 43.3 the right to breastfeed in any location, public or private.  

We waited for our images to be finished.  Vanessa called me over to look at the images. As I mentioned, I knew there wouldn't be a lot of usable images, but I was surprised that there were only 17.  And the majority of these were not anything I would choose for a professional picture.  Most of the close up shots that were really cute had the top, or side of the head cut off.  A few of the full shots that were good clearly showed the plastic “wood” flooring pealing up.  Vanessa didn't say anything and seemed really bored to be there.

I was apprehensive about getting my son's pictures from Picture People to begin with, and apparently for good reason.  I won't be returning to your store, or chain, and will definitely dissuade others from going there.

Yeah, it was terrible. Fortunately, I only spent $20,

Originally, we had pictures scheduled with Abby, a girl I know from church. (I say girl, but she's probably just a couple years younger than me). We were scheduled mid-March, but then Bertie and Aaron were sick. So we moved to the next Saturday. But then the baby they were adopting came five weeks early, so she and her hubby had to rush out to Ohio. She just updated her facebook today, the birth mom changed her mind. When I read that, my gut sank. I'm heartbroken for them. They were involved from the very beginning. I went down to tell Dennis, since he knew about the adoption. I was telling him, and he reacted as anyone would. At that moment Janet walked up and asked what happened. (She's never met Abby, and doesn't know her). I told her, and she started crying. (For those who don't know, Aaron was adopted at birth. Janet and Dennis are his parents. He didn't meet his bio-mom until he was 24). This, of course, made me cry. There's nothing you can say, or do. It's human nature to want to help, but this is a helpless situation.

On to better things.

Aside from the terrible news above, today was a pretty good day. I had an early start. Bertie woke up at 3, I let him fuss for 15 or 20 minutes (he was more whining than anything else). Then I went in, changed him, nursed him, and laid him back down. I couldn't go back to sleep. I got up a little after 4. I left for work at 6. Work was normal. When I got home, Bertie was sleeping, but woke up as soon as I went in the house. He was sleeping on the floor. His eyes snapped open, he looked at me, and crawled right over. He also crawled up the stairs twice! That's the first time he's done that. We went to Safeway and got Seltzer water (I'm nearly 2 weeks diet coke free!). Then I decided we would go to Red Lobster for lunch, I had a gift card. I got 1.5 lbs of crab legs. Bertram is usually a bottomless pit, so I assumed he'd eat a lot. He did eat two biscuits, but only a little crab. So we'll have lunch tomorrow. I thought he was tired (I know I was), so we went home. I laid down with him, and then put him in his bed. He didn't sleep. We then went for a nice walk. When we got back, I laid him down again. I got dinner started. I made a Mexican casserole. He still didn't sleep, so I drew and bath, and we both got in. Aaron came home, we got dried and dressed, and ate dinner. Aaron didn't like it, I thought it was good. We walked the dogs. And Bertie went to bed. I'll be doing that same soon.