I caved.

When Lukie brought home the brochure announcing school picture day, I let out an "ugh" of disgust.  I not-so-secretly hate school pictures.  Every time we've ordered school pictures in the past, they end up in their envelopes gathering dust on my office shelves, taunting me every time I run across them because I don't like them well enough to frame and hang them, yet we spent good money on them, and there is something about a picture of my kid that makes it impossible for me to throw it away.  Plus, I take hundreds of pictures of my kids, and most of them I like better than the staid, posed, blue-backgroundy school photos.  So, every year, the section of my shelves devoted to school pictures gets more crowded, more dusty, and more ridiculous.

So, I vowed I would take a stand.  I was NOT going to order school pictures this year!  Go me!  My resolution was only made easier when my older kids told me that school picture days for them had come and gone already without them bothering to tell me, so it wasn't even possible for me to order pictures of them.  With a great show of purpose, I tossed Luke's school picture brochure into the garbage and patted myself on the back.

  But then this morning as Luke was getting ready to go to school, he reminded me that it is school picture day, so his hair needed to look nice.  I tried to prepare him, and I told him that I wasn't going to order any school pictures this year, so his hair looked fine (his hair doesn't really look fine.  He cut a chunk out of the front of it a week ago at school, and I haven't bothered to fix it).

Luke was dumbfounded that I was not planning to order his school pictures. 

 Sigh.  

So, I grabbed the hair gel and spiked his hair to hopefully hide the chunk that is missing, fished the brochure out of the kitchen garbage, and grabbed a $20 bill to pay for the cheapest package.  

The way I look at, I am paying $20 so Lukie won't feel like the only first grader in his class whose parents don't love him enough to want his picture.  

And every time I come across the picture of his cute little face with a fake smile, half-opened eyes, and cheesy background, I am going to remind myself that this photo commemorates my little boy knowing his mom and dad think he is photo-worthy.  

And, that the people who came up with this school picture gig have really got my number.