The elusive smile

*Sigh* My boy, he is his father's son. Smiling for the camera is strictly off limits. They both smile all the time, but it is hard to convince them that they need to smile for the camera.

But yesterday I caught him. 

  

I pulled tho oldest trick in the book. You look at him and tell him not to smile in a sing song voice. 

"Don't smiiiiile.... Don't do it, don't smiiiiiiile, Sonny Boy." I have very distinct memories of my best childhood friend, Lori, doing this to me after we had a fight. And I would do it to her as well. Nothing pisses you off as much as smiling when you don't want to. It's almost as bad as me crying when I'm really angry. That really makes me mad. And then I cry more. It's an awful, horrible, viscous cycle.

"Dooon't smiiiiile....." Ha, he's starting to crack. I've almost got him!

"Doooon't smiiiiiile....." And there it is, a full fledged smile. He's taken to smiling with his mouth closed lately, and I'm not gonna lie, it's a good thing. Grown up teeth are trying to force their way into a small seven year old mouth. It takes a while for the rest of your body to grow into those teeth. He thinks he looks like a vampire with his two giant front teeth. Unless vampires have suddenly started taking after Bugs Bunny, he is wrong, but I won't tell him that. He can be a vampire all he wants, as long as he doesn't start biting people.

At this point the poor kid couldn't stop smiling and had to duck into the house to get away from me and my camera. It took some work, but I finally got a photo of him that can go on my wall.