Baby Photo Contest, continued

As previously posted, my sister Margaret wants us to enter Olivia in a Baby Magazine cover photo contest. My brother Jim thinks that that we'd get a higher expected return on our time by affixing magazine stickers to our Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes form. Looking over some of the baby photos submitted to this contest so far, it seems pretty clear that Jim is right. For example, check out this kid , or this one.

Olivia sitting up

Olivia is lucky to have guest blogger Margaret as an auntie, otherwise this blog might never get updated. What they say about infants growing fast is true. I went to the living room yesterday and saw Olivia seated at her toy box trying to pull toys out. Wow. It was just 2 weeks ago that she was toppling after sitting for 3 seconds.

Guest blogger - margaret

OK - here is a video - I like this one because it has my mother calling Olivia "Oba-San" - which turns out is Japanese for old lady - and with her speaking Taiwanese to Olivia in the end, while Olivia talks to my dad.

Olivia is trying to flip that duck so she can chew on the head, beak, and tail feathers.

Videos - from GUEST BLOGGER (MargareT)

Olivia found something else to put in her mouth - -

And here she is with the funniest thing she has ever seen (in all of her 5 months)

A star in the making

My sister came across this baby photo contest sponsored by Parenting Magazine and Good Morning America. The email thread encouraging us to enter went something like this:

Margaret: I found this baby contest online. You should enter Olivia, she needs to start contributing to her college fund.

Jim (Joyce's brother): Maybe you should also buy Olivia some lottery tickets (My brother's opinion of state run lotteries, 'tax on the stupid.')

Sometime between that email exchange and today, I decided that I should enter. It will only take 5 minutes to enter, and the finalists get an all expense paid trip to New York City.

The question is -- what photo should we use?

Olivia doing her Spencer impersonation

Olivia doing her Joyce impersonation

Olivia after the 1/23 State of the Union address

The effects of too much television on early childhood development

Olivia's opinion of California Proposition 98

Trip to Portrait Innovators

As Margaret just posted, while we were in Pennsylvania, I took Olivia to Portrait Innovators to get some professional quality portraits taken.

I'm totally intrigued by the Portrait Innovations business model. The basic premise is that they offer a $9.95 portrait package. The portrait session consists of taking about 80 shots. Can you identify the loss leader in this picture?

Unlike the photographers who came to take pictures of Olivia in the hospital, they have locked into the economics of urgency. The photographer repeatedly tells you that the photos will be 'deleted forever' if you don't commit now. You need to buy whatever photos you want in the 20 minutes sales session after the shots are taken. We were the perfect target market -- a 5 month old infant (all infants are photogenic,) accompanied by her grandmother. I should note that to this day my mother still regrets not purchasing a pose of my brother when he was about 3 months old. Ka Ching!

We bought way too many shots, but the convenience factor alone was worth it to me. 'Take Olivia to photographer' is about the last thing on my to do list in Berkeley.

I have joked with my parents that next time we visit them in Pennsylvania, Spencer and I will go without my mom and leave with just the $9.95 special.

Photos! (GUEST BLOGGER: MARGARET)

OK - I am tired of looking at Joyce's last post, so need to take it upon myself to at least post some new photos of Olivia. I don't have great photos because a) Babies are really difficult to photograph, b) I am not a great photographer, and c) Dad was supposed to send me an entire CD of movies/photos, but it looks as though it was lost in the mail - - - - :-(

Apologies for the poor web design of this blog. I really have no idea how to use Blogger - - - -so the spacing is all messed up. (Maybe joyce can fix this all and straighten the pics, etc.)

The good news is that we do have some pics that WEREN'T taken by me. I was very skeptical when they set up this appointment at Photo Innovations, but the photos came out really well - - -

AND HERE IS MY FAVORITE - -

Olivia -- discovered!

The Luhs and the Knights know that Olivia is adorable, but soon the rest of the world will know as well. Olivia has been discovered! Olivia was being her usual adorable self on our flight back from Newark to Pennsylvania last night and we happened to meet a talent agent looking for a baby to cast in a TV show (she couldn't release the details, but it's an established and popular series.) She thinks Olivia will be perfect for the role, and even if nothing happens with that program, she wants to represent Olivia for modelling and commercial work in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

At first I thought it was a scam, but it seems like the real deal. They want me and Olivia to fly to LA next week for a casting call. It all seems to be happening so fast. I'm not going to quit my job yet, but who knows, my next career could be as a Hollywood mom. Maybe I can party with Dinah Lohan. PS -- April Fools. Olivia isn't heading to Hollywood anytime soon, except as a tourist.