Baby's First Passport Photo

As we arrive at CVS for our son’s first passport photo he’s asleep. On average, newborns sleep 20 hours a day. At just a little over a week old, ours is out cold - completely unresponsive to our polite coos to wake up. I’m not proud of how I decided to wake him. His expression in his winning shot portrays his disappointment in me. We can feel the CVS customers’ eyes seemingly judging us as I wake my newborn for a passport photo to travel internationally during a global pandemic...Shame on us. In some ways the judgment feels deserved. But with only six weeks post-birth to obtain all necessary documents (i.e. birth certificate, passport, etc.) needed to travel back to Mexico, we’ve got to be solutions-oriented.

Mom guilt aside, I view these passport and visa photos as sweet keepsakes of this unique lifestyle. The never-flattering passport photo is even more amusing in baby form. His disappointment with me aside, our son looks like a grumpy old man telling us to get off his lawn. Our daughter took her first passport photo at six months old. The Walgreens employee asked us to hold a white poster board behind our daughter as we held her upright for him to take the shot. Her wispy baby hairs became static-charged, sticking straight up and towards the poster board, and her chunky chin(s) were at the exact wrong angle for the camera’s lens. It’s a rough photo, but it’s also a classic. These are the small joys of a mom of mini expats.