the biggest brother

Henry, my getting-way-too-grown-up-for-my-liking 3 1/2 year old.

You know how, sometimes, your my kids are acting like heathens and running rough-shod all over you me and there's not a snowball's chance in hell you'd I'd try to take their picture? Well, you I used to try, despite the chaos...but after enough stink-eyes, ugly faces, and blood-pressure jumps, you've I've learned.

To capture my babies' best faces (or, not their worst ones anyway), I've gotta wait. I've gotta work for it. I've gotta have my bribes at the ready.

In this case, he was already in a glowing mood (James had just been put to bed...no further explanation necessary), and I told him that if he made a nice smile for my camera, I'd tickle him to smithereens afterwards.

See, everybody wins.