Satya's blog - Neil's passport

We had an appointment for Neil's passport today. It was moved to today instead of Monday because the passport clerk was out sick or something. Fair enough.

Now, the photos have many rules. So we figured we'd get them at some photo shop, because on Monday the passport office camera wasn't working. Photo shop we went to didn't want to, because he's so small the photos are usually wrong and get rejected (eyes closed, etc.). Since the passport office camera was fixed, we thought we'd do it there at the appointed time.

We had an appointment for 1:30. We were seen at 2:00. Then the clerk says that since he's so small (Neil, not the clerk), it's hard for them to do it and it's better we go to some place in Towne Centre (Ritz) and they should be able to. We got an appointment for tomorrow. Clerk was pretty nice about it and asked if we at least had the right papers so tomorrow wouldn't be a problem.

At the photo shop, the guy said sure, but you have to hold him up and make sure his eyes are open. I said fine, but can we do him on the counter, might be easier. We were using a white blanket for the background anyway. He says no, better against the door. I figure he already has the distance calculated right to get the right size in the final print.

So we get him out of the car seat and hold him up (this wakes him) and he's looking around and staring at me. So I moved my head near the camera and we got several *beautiful* exposures, and 2 nice passport prints.

All this while I'm thinking, he's only 4 weeks old. *If* he's awake, he might be crying. We don't know *when* he'll be awake and happy enough to keep his eyes open. Even then, it's hard to hold him up and be outside the frame (solved that by holding him up in a blanket, with my hands on the other side). So we got lucky that he was wide awake and not cranky at just the right time. Yay.