The Saga of the Matching Dresses

The moment I found out I was having another girl, I immediately began dreaming about two little girls in matching dresses. So when my mom sent Sophie an adorable dress for Christmas this year, I immediately ran to the store to buy Emmy a matching one.

Of course, my next step was to try to capture their cuteness on camera, which proved to be a much more difficult task than I originally thought. The first Sunday they wore their dresses proved to be impossible. This was one of Sophie's first outings to church and we had to cancel the photo shoot so that we could get there reasonably late. After church was a disaster, with Emmy throwing her scheduled 4:00 pm tantrum.

I decided that Sunday wasn't going to be a good day for picture-taking, so I called up the local Picture People and set up an appointment for professionals to take over. Picture day arrived and I packed up the car with dresses, accessories, bribes, and the two girls. My friend, Heather, and her perfect child, Abby, came with us for moral support. We explained the whole process to Emmy, assuring her that once the pictures were taken, she would get a sucker and a ride on the horsie. All seemed to be fine. The girls were darling, Sophie smiling, and Emmy with her strawberry-blonde locks neatly curled under. (I'd even gotten her to let me curl her hair!) Emmy seemed to be in good spirits as she asked me when the "man" would come to take her picture. Suddenly, though, the "man" did come, and right when he set up the black backdrop, Emmy let out a bloodcurdling scream of terror. She could not be calmed and she clung to me as if her life depended on it. I gave up. Heather escorted Emmy from the room and we took pictures of Sophie sans sister. Heather summed up the experience pretty well when she said, "That was hard."

So today I decided to try again. I knew I would probably fail, but I had to give it one more shot. Before church, Sophie fell asleep and we had to bring her in her pjs. So we decided to try for after church, in hopes that Emmy would postpone or give up altogether on her 4:00 tantrum. The stars aligned, just barely. Here are my two little girls in their matching dresses:

Emmy is very happy to have her picture taken

Sophie is thrilled as well

Awww

Don't be deceived by these smiling faces . . .