We did it!  Baby, Grandma, and I flew out to Portland and took some pictures for gDiapers.  I was concerned that Miss K would have a hard time or would be tired or cranky but all in all, she did pretty well!  We got to the photo studio in the morning and I was nervous!  I just wanted my baby to be happy and I really wanted her to be in an ad.  I know.  It’s selfish.  But I love this child and I can’t help but want her to represent a product that I believe in.  My husband also made me feel good – he said maybe one day she’ll think it’s really cool that her mom took her to be in a photo shoot for a diaper company.  I hope so.  I’m not trying to pimp out my kid (trust me, the compensation was not a motivator).

Anyways, we got to the photo shoot and I met three gals from gDiapers – all were FANTASTICALLY nice.  Really, just friendly and professional and I just can’t say enough good things.  One of the people I met was Kim Graham-Nye, one of the founders of the company.  She was really cool.  I couldn’t help but tell her how much I admired what she’s doing with the company.  It’s really really impressive and I hope she has nothing but success.  Back to the photo shoot.  We dressed Miss K in one of the spring line’s new items and she looked AH.  DOR.  AH.  BLE.  She did great!  She smiled and crawled and played and it seemed like they got plenty of good shots.  I hope that they end up using some of the shots in their marketing materials. They also had me change my shirt and they took some pictures of me with Miss K.

I got to preview the new spring line – as usual, gDiapers continues to put out great products.  But that’s all I’ll say about that!  You’re just going to have to wait til they’re released to fall in love.  🙂 I wish I could have taken one of each home with me – but alas.  It was not destined to be.

I was a little disappointed in the other gmums.  They were kind of cold; maybe they all knew each other or they’ve done this before.  Most of them just weren’t very friendly but that’s ok.  Karen, Gillian, Heather and Kim more than made up for it.  The ladies in the afternoon were a little better.

Miss K did do one wardrobe change and she was a trooper – poor thing tumbled a little when she was climbing on a prop and cried a little but settled down pretty quickly.  She did great.  I’m so proud of her.  So was her grandma.

In the afternoon, they called back to see if we could sit in on some more pictures.  I thought we were really far away but then we passed the exit for the photo studio on the freeway so I called them back and asked if they still needed us and they said yes so we stopped by again.  Unfortunately we weren’t planning on this second shoot so she wasn’t fed and rested.  The second one didn’t go as well; poor baby started crying some and was just tired.  I felt bad about that so I pulled her out of the shots a couple times and did my best to make her happy.  This time instead of dDiapers employee Gillian helping out, Heather was there and she was just delightful.  So so friendly and warm.

The funny part was that K. wore three different things and two of those things came out of my diaper bag.  The first time they were doing pictures with an existing color and when they put theirs on her, it looked a little saggy because it hadn’t been washed.  I happened to have that same color in good condition in my bag so we used that!  The second time they were in a rush and liked the color she was wearing when we came in for the afternoon shoot so they took pictures of her in that color.  Funny, huh?

I’m seriously impressed with both the photographer and the gDiapers folks.  They were still going – all day of taking pictures with unpredictable babies and still upbeat.  Awesome.  I know it’s a little crazy but I’m glad we did it.  The pictures won’t be published until the spring but that’s ok.  It was a good experience for us.

The travel itself for the most part went well also.  First time traveling without my husband and I was a bit nervous but it was ok.  My mom went with us and she’s really a piece of cake to travel with.  She is on board with whatever plan I come up with, genuinely wants to help, and isn’t picky about where we stay or what we eat.  Really, I am blessed.  She was fantastic the entire trip.  She sat in the back seat with Miss K when we drove places and fed her and watched her so that I could run out and get food and gas and whatever else.  Miss K did good on the flights, too.  She was a little fussy on the last leg of the trip but otherwise was a trooper.  They almost routed us back to Oakland halfway through our flight from San Jose to Orange County but then ended up landing at LAX.  Phew.  I was really dreading flying all the way back to Oakland and extending our travel day.  We could have waited a while and taken a flight from LAX to Orange County Airport (it’s about a 45 minute drive) but we just had our ride pick us up from LAX instead.  I didn’t want the poor thing to have to go up and down in the air any more than she needed to.  All in all, a great trip.  Thank you Mom, and thank you gDiapers!