Say "Monkey"!

     Remember when you were a kid, and your parents huddled you and your siblings together, pointed the camera at you and demanded everyone to "Say 'Cheese'!" 


     I'm not sure where the "cheese" part came in...Of course wikipedia had some thoughts about this...

"Say cheese" is an instruction used by photographers who want their subject to smile. By saying "cheese", most people form their mouths into what appears to be a smile-like shape. Additionally, the absurdity of saying "cheese" for no apparent reason can incite glee in some people.^{[citation needed]}

As this practice became ingrained into modern western culture, it has taken on the simple role of a final warning before a photograph is taken. Often subjects will simply use the phrase "say cheese" as a cue to enter their final pose and to smile, neglecting to actually say "cheese".   (www.wikipedia.com)

     Go ahead, try it. ....say "cheese"...Did you mouth form a "smile like shape" (as wikipedia says). 

     For the record, someone told us several years ago that saying "monkey" prompts a more natural smile for children.

     Now try "monkey"...a little bit better, isn't it?! 

     Cheese or monkeys aside, I know that I usually obliged, said "cheese" and offered a smile for my picture taking parents. 

     Guess who doesn't do that in our house?

     Guess who likes to make faces? Turn their head or put their hands in front of their eyes so that I can't see them? 

     Guess who likes to rebel against saying "cheese" or "monkey"?

     Guess who could care less whether her mother would like to capture a few moments that say 'I was a sweet child once in a while...really I was." 

      How about the morning when she was sitting ever so sweetly at the kitchen counter, eating her breakfast, in a dress, with a very cute headband that she had donned herself...I grabbed my camera, before the mood changed or she noticed and tried to capture a "candid." Too late on the not noticing part....

"Aw, c'mon Ella. How about a nicer face?" I plead...

I get this...

Or how about on Easter when the girls were nicely dressed and my hubby looked pretty handsome...think I could get a nice picture then? 

For the record...that is not her not being ready for the picture, it is her turning her head ON PURPOSE!!!

Maybe on her birthday? Think she'd smile for a picture on her birthday?

There are many more pieces of evidence to prove that the child has a secret ploy to foil any nice pictures of her childhood...

There are also some sweet ones...like this...

And the ones from earlier this year when I would ask her to smile and she wasn't sure what that meant yet...We would get something like this...LOL! 

If one thing is for certain it is that her lack of smiles makes me smile...when I look BACK on it of course (never in the moment when I'm imploring her to cooperate!). 

Maybe I can save all of these and give them to her future husband...to remind him that when she is being crabby and uncooperative that it's not just him! 

I think my poor husband might need a few of those reminders this week as well, but that's another story entirely!