What was I thinking????

For those of you that don't know this. Lexi has two passports. A Norwegian one and a US one. She will be able to hold two passports until the age of 18 when she (by Norwegian law) will have to choose one. She has had these passports since she was about one month old as we traveled for the first time when she was about 3 months old. She has to travel into and out of the US on her American passport, but uses the Norwegian for other travels and back into Norway.

Whilst her US passport is valid for 5 years, her Norwegian is only valid for 2. I recently realized that it had expired in Feb of this year. So, I went online to print out the renewal application and gathered all of the necessary stuff (expired passport, Tim's passport, money, got Tim to sign the forms since he wasn't coming with us, etc.). I planned to take Lexi on Monday morning and figured we would take her new passport pics in the photo machine that is on-site.

What was I thinking???? As I was driving to the police station (where the passport renewal office is), I suddenly thought - how am I going to get a two year old to take a proper passport picture??? Looking at the camera, mouth closed, eyes open, etc. I seriously contemplated driving to a photography studio to get them taken (like we did two years ago), but figured it wouldn't be open at 8:10am on a Monday morning.

So, we continued on. At the photo machine, we adjusted the chair up and her eyes were nearly at eye level (meanwhile ignoring all of the signs that they recommend children 5 and under get passport photos taken by a photographer or that mouth should be closed, eyes open, solemn, etc.). We deposited our first 50 kr ($8) and started the process to take up to four photos. It takes a pic and then asks you if you want to select it (preview screen) or want to continue. You can take all 4 and then choose the best one. Well, we didn't make it that far. Little Miss hit the touch-screen button after pic #3 and selected it. Mind you, pics 1 & 2 were OK, but she was sitting a bit low. So, I had adjusted her up in pic #3 and that is when she decided to ham it up for the camera. So, my child, who is just like her father and really doesn't "cheese" for the camera, suddenly starts making all sorts of funny faces as she can see her reflection in the screen. So, here is the result of my first eight bucks. (my color scanner is messed-up which is why the color is off, but I think you get the idea)


What do I do? Naturally, deposit 50kr more - it's still cheaper than a photographer. So, we manage to take all four pics this time. She sits on my lap to get the extra height and I have to hold this white board between us to create the white background. Here is the best of the four (the only one with mouth closed) and THANKFULLY, they accepted it. So, for the next two years, here is her Norwegian passport pic. We got the new passport in the mail today and it is super funny (in black and white).

What was I thinking????