My niece spent most of the holiday either (briefly) naked or (for the vast majority of the time) dressed in one of her hideous Disney-licensed “Princess™” costumes. For the family photographer this was deeply, deeply frustrating. Here’s the best I could do under the circumstances. I took these on black-and-white film of course. You’d scratch your eyes out if you had to look at the colours of the meringues she was wearing.
Here are Maisie and Sam by the tree:
Straight out of The Big Book Of Velvet Backdrop High Street Family Photography, here’s Maisie manhandling a Prince and Princess™:
And here’s Sam in Maisie’s den, wearing the rather excellent sweater I gave him, and directing one of my remotely-controlled flashes:
If I wasn’t already raging to get knocked up, these pictures would have convinced me. What dollbabies! (I have to confess: I bought my niece a Little Mermaid doll, a Little Mermaid illuminated art desk, and a “Princess Primer” guide on how to be, er, a princess. It was less an effort to flip feminists and anti-consumerists the bird than to get something that would actually go down well. Yep, I’m a sucker.)
Your Maisie is a bewitching child. Almost as bewitching as my little granddaughter Zara. I suspect they share the same uncanny ability always to look amazing in photographs. It’s something to do with zest for living, I think. Zara’s brother, Thomas, is exceedingly clever for seven, thoughtful, exceedingly robust and possessed of a cutting wit. He is so self-conscious in front of the camera that it gets snide with him. I have the same affliction.
Jackie wrote:
As well as English and French, is Antoine also fluent in German?
Personally, I’m slightly disturbed by Maisie’s current “JonBenét Ramsey” fashion kick.
I’m pleased to say her parents are resistant to her doe-eyed wiles—except when it comes to yucky frocks.
You’re right, Sam is very cute! And to think it was one of the names I suggested… He’s definitely a “Sam”.
P.S. Burn the meringue dresses.
Antoine does indeed speak German, but that picture reminds me of why I thought sex was icky when I was a kid. Leave it to the Germans.
I will cut anyone who burns Maisie’s meringues.