Don’t you just hate obnoxious grandmothers? You know the type . . . their grandchild is the cutest, the sweetest, the most well-behaved, and on and on. I am so surprised that my friend, Chris, has turned into one of “those” grandmothers. When she e-mailed to tell me she was coming from Michigan for a visit, she told me all about Kayla, her only grandchild who lives here in Jacksonville. I just knew there couldn’t be a baby as cute and as good as the one Chris described, but I was looking forward to meeting her anyway. We met for lunch on Friday and I hate to admit it – but Chris was not exaggerating. Kayla is absolutely adorable and she has the best disposition I have ever encountered. She just smiled and made faces at all of us throughout the meal. She did flirt a little with the waiters so I worry about her when she is older, but she was the perfect lunch companion – even with a terrible cold.

We had not planned for me to do pictures of Kayla on this visit. I’m more of an outdoor, casual type of photographer, so Chris was going to have more formal portraits made this visit. However, Kayla woke up on Saturday morning feeling miserable. They stopped by my house later in the day to return a chair Chris had borrowed and were quite disappointed that they weren’t going to get portraits made this visit. We decided to throw my backdrop up in my den and let Miss Kayla just play. We weren’t at all sure that we would get any usable pictures because Kayla’s little nose was running, her eyes were watery, and she had a raspy cough. Even so, Kayla was the happiest little thing I’ve ever seen. We were able to get quite a few good pictures of Kayla before she was completely worn out. And with the wonder of PhotoShop, I was able to get rid of visual evidence of Kayla’s cold.

Here is a sneak preview of Kayla’s unplanned session.

OK, I have to admit that Chris isn’t THAT obnoxious a grandmother. To be honest, she’s not nearly as bad as I plan to be when I have a grandchild. In fact, I’m already practicing with my granddog. Have I told you about Max the wonder-dog?