Baby J. and Her Chimpanzee

My wife is helping Baby J.'s grandmother run a book festival this weekend. Since it's an all day event (and seeing as I went last year, and I almost suffocated from the ridiculous number of people crammed into a tiny room), Baby J. and I are going to spend the entire Saturday together, just hanging out. It looks like it might actually be warm enough this Saturday for the two of us to go on a nice long walk together. Other than that, we'll probably stay indoors and play with toys all day.

I think one of the best parts about being a dad is that I have a legitimate excuse for playing with toys again. As an adult, I'd look and feel pretty ridiculous pretending that a giant stuffed chimpanzee was real. I'd also feel pretty crazy if I went around making monkey noises and hopping up and down. But because I'm entertaining a 9 month old baby, it's perfectly normal. In fact, such behavior is absolutely encouraged.

On Sunday, we'll be attempting Baby J.'s photo shoot (if her teething has somewhat surpassed that is and she's not too terribly cranky). If you're checking out the blog for the first time, I'm really looking for stories/information from others who brought their babies in for photo shoots.

D.

Boober's Home Photo Shoot

My wife and I have decided we'd like to take Baby J. to a photographer. We want to get some really great pictures for the holidays that we can send to all of our relatives. We did our own quasi-photo shoot one time. We threw down some nice sheets and blankets, dressed up Baby J. in various outfits, took a couple hundred pictures. They came out pretty well, but we want to really do something good this time. So this is less a blog entry and more a questionnaire for parents who have done this before. I'm curious about some things (please leave some comments as answers to my questions if you can):

1. Where are the best places to go? We're a single income family with a tight holiday budget, so we can't go too overboard. I want to know what places offer quality photos while remaining affordable.
2. For places that offer digital photos on cd... are the photos on the CDs high quality images or low resolution? If they're low resolution, they're not going to do me a lot of good, but if they're high quality, I could always take the photos to a cheaper printer.
3. How should we dress Baby J.? We're planning on buying her a really pretty dress. But should we expect a lot of outfit changes?
4. How long does the process usually take? For anyone out there with kids, I'm sure you know how hard it is to keep a young child, especially a baby, focused for more than 30 seconds at a time. And I'm sure Baby J. will become extremely frustrated with us if this takes a long time.
5. And finally, is it worth it? Obviously it's more pricey, but do you get something for that? Are we going to be impressed with the kinds of pictures we get when compared with our own digital camera.

Let me know anything else you might have to add!!!

D.