Suckered

So I had this coupon. It was for a free 10x13 at the Picture People, one of many chain portrait studios peppered throughout area malls. I've been itching to have Lily's portrait taken but have so far been able to resist -- largely because I haven't had a paycheck in quite awhile. Today, we were at the mall, and I said I just want to go in and ask some questions. You know, find out how much it costs after the coupon, that kind of thing. 

I asked my questions and a salesgirl shows me all the various packages and this and that. I was looking around at the portraits on the walls and such. They had some really cute ones of a naked baby in a bathtub. And the sales girl said, "You could just get your free one, just to try us out." They had some time to take Lily's pictures right then. Well, that's not fair. How am I supposed to walk away from that? 

I had no cute outfits with me. She was just wearing a Carter's onesie with spit up all over the front. But I really wanted to do some naked baby pictures anyway, so why not, right? Just to give it a try. So while Khan fed Lily, I ran back down to the Children's Place and got a little headband that I thought would be perfect. But I would later find out that it was too perfect. 

So they take us to the studio by the mall window -- right by where all the people walk by. I didn't think they even used that, I thought it was just for show. And they started shooting photos of Lily. Some with the headband, some without. Some on her tummy, some on her back. Some with her diaper on, some without. Not long after we took off the diaper, she peed on their pretty white blanket. Sorry.

While they were busy shooting pictures, I was watching her, of course. But I was also watching the people outside. Some people looked as they walked by, and commented on what a cute baby, oh look at the pretty baby, and the like. But it was crazy because it didn't take long before there was literally a crowd outside watching. I mean these people stopped their shopping and were just watching my little superstar. And I admit it: I loved every second of that. 

But then the hard part came. They sat us down to choose our picture. The showed us the first one. Oh my gosh, it was adorable. And then the second one. We loved it. And the third -- you get the idea. We loved all of them. How could we pick just one? (And this is why the coupon for the "free portrait" is genius, right?)  Just when I think they can't make it worse for me, they bring out some framed enlargements with Lily's picture. Wouldn't you know it? They do framing right there, too. I told the girl she was evil. 

Somehow, we didn't buy much. We got a couple of extras besides our free print, but we did pretty well. I was actually pretty proud of our restraint. Of course, the pictures are available for us to purchase anytime we want for a whole year. Dammit.