He can't sit unsupported for very long, and only if he is leaning against something.
He doesn't like to sit still, so will swing his arms, legs, head and body because he knows this will eventually result in him being back on the ground.
(It only takes him a few movements and he's off our laps now.)
He has dystonia, and that means his head is often moving, and these are uncontrolled movements.
His dystonia also means his mouth is often open.
Dexter has ridiculously long lashes, and if his eyes are slightly lowered,
it looks as though his eyes are closed.
When this is all combined, it makes for interesting photos!
He's got some downright ugly and embarrassing photos!
(So, to be fair, we make sure we get some really ugly ones of his sister, too!)
We don't worry about photo-shopping Dexter, though often its tempting to remove drool.
We can't erase his cerebral palsy in real life, so we don't remove it in photos.
We do take a lot of photos, just to get one good one.
Luckily, it's the age of digital photos!
Here are some photo shoots:
The Mothers' Day photos...
Lighthouse photos...
Dexter leans forward and curls up. And smiles.
We've always loved the echidna roll.
Sometimes, his open mouth makes for bad photos...
I guess, in reality, he knew we were all happy... and that was enough to make him really happy. He knows what's going on around him.
And really, even the bad photos aren't terrible, when you can see the cheeky nature and loving kid behind the cerebral palsy smile.
We've learned to take a bunch of photos, really quickly!
(There's no saying 'Sit still and smile' with Dexter... yet.
Maybe we should work on that...)