My rant for today.

As of June, all Canadians will require a passport to travel to the USA, even if traveling by land. Unfortunately, I could procrastinate no longer. For 2 years I have been dreading the task of having to obtain Ysabella's passport. Why? Perhaps it's all the paperwork that's involved. Or the thought of trying to get a 2 year old to sit still for a passport photo. Or having to drive and park downtown and wait in line forever at the Passport Office. (Yes, I realize I could mail it in, but there's something that doesn't sit well with me about mailing off her birth certificate.) Well, I'm happy to report that I'm almost 50% through the process.

After having read the rules regarding passport photos and knowing them by heart, off to Walmart we went for the picture. (Of course, I tried to make sure Bella looked as cute as a little girl can be for her passport picture. ) Once there, the lady who was taking the picture told me I had to take the little matching flower clip out of her hair. No problem, I did. She also told me I had to leave her sweater on her because apparently, white shirts aren't allowed. No problem, I did. Then she told me that I also had to take out the CLEAR elastic band that held her bangs out of her face. I couldn't believe it. (The rules only mentioned no sunglasses, no shadows, no flash reflection, person must have a neutral expression with mouth closed...even a headscarf would have been okay if it was for religious purposes.) But no clear elastic band...you have GOT to be kidding me! The saleslady told me that I could put the elastic band behind her head if I wanted to (her bangs aren't long enough for that yet so the suggestion was useless). She also said that some representatives at the Passport Office may have accepted the photo with the elastic band on the top of her head, but that others might not, and that I would be 'taking my chances' if I left it in. Needless to say, I wasn't going to go through this whole process to get down to the Passport Office, wait in line and get to the counter for the Passport Representative to take one look at the photo and tell me it wouldn't be acceptable. So, out came the elastic. In addition to having to get a photo of Bella's head and shoulders squared with the camera with a neutral expression, mouth closed, eyes open, picture sharp & in focus, no reflections, no shadows, no flash reflections, but now I also had to fight with her bangs staying off her forehead and out of her eyes. Arrrggg!!! I was about ready to pull my hair out! It was completely hilarious yet totally frustrating at the same time. Ysabella gave tilted side-ward glances and crooked smiles, hugged a teddy bear, and made her infamous scrunched up face with lots of teeth smile about a hundred times before we managed to snap this one.

Because my other bloggy friends posted pics of their little one's passport photos (and I smiled admiringly at the scrumptious mug shots), I thought I'd post Ysabella's resulting passport photo for you all to see.

Enjoy. What an effort! :)
After all this, watch them tell me that the photo is not acceptable because there are words on her shirt or boogars in her right nostril.