Earning a Living

A lot of the foreign moms get their babies into modeling here. It seems a baby can be a model if she meets one qualification: not Chinese. After living here a few short weeks, I received an e-mail stating Chicco was looking for babies under 80 centimeters. As soon as I finished my quick conversion of Jade's length from inches to centimeters (she is 67 centimeters... and 17 1/2 pounds as of her doctor's visit on Tuesday in case you were wondering), I shot off an e-mail to the agent. Cody and I decided it isn't too early to start teaching Jade she has got to work for her living.

Tuesday was the first shoot (she had three--the last one was this morning). As the taxi slowed to find the building #, I looked down at the address and back up at the buildings. Yep. This has got to be it. It was nothing like I expected. Just like the rest of the morning. When I visualized a model shoot, I thought of a nice office building with big glass doors leading to a nicely decorated lobby with an elevator taking me to a big, open room with a nice, clean studio. Nope. Not the case.

This is the building I got out at. The only clue that I was in the right place was the door was open that morning. And behind that door was these stairs. The shoot was on the 3rd floor--at the top of the long, narrow staircase. No elevator.


Once we defeated the staircase, I entered a room full of Taiwanese people...speaking Chinese, of course. Okay, which one is Daphne--the agent that e-mailed me? Anytime someone would say something to me, I would say, "Daphne?" Finally, an 'elegantly' dressed lady (see picture below) told me Daphne was on her way. We'll call her Cleo because she reminded me of that cat from Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats cartoon. Cleo then told me she would would apply Jadyn's make-up first. Great. I just needed some direction in this chaos. Here are a few pictures of the tight quarters we were in (make-up, clothing, staging area, set).



Cleo was very animated and very funny, complete with a deep, raspy voice. I was in such awe of her AMAZING choice of apparel, I had to have a picture! Words can only describe so much and Cody HAD to see this lady! I think she was pretty flattered by the request.


As she applied Jadyn's make-up, she said (with Chinese accent), "ticka, ticka, ticka." I think she meant "tickle, tickle, tickle." Jade was in such wonderment of the whole situation, she just stared, with jaw dropped, the whole time. Cleo spoke a bit of English--more than anyone else there, so I stuck with her until Daphne arrived. Cleo handed me an outfit to dress Jade in and we were lead to the set.

Shortly thereafter Daphne arrived. She is a young, beautiful, spunky girl. I soon realized it was her job, as well as about three or four other Taiwanese ladies, to get the baby to look at the camera and remain content, if not happy. This was pretty funny. All the women were yelling, clapping, cooing, dancing, etc. at Jadyn at the same time. It made for a very entertaining, and loud experience. Again Jadyn just stared the whole time.


The shoot lasted two hours and then we had to brave the stairwell again. It was a pretty daunting task with baby on one hip and diaper bag over one shoulder. We made it safely down. I had to take the picture on the right to show how small each stair was. My heel is pushed all the way back on the stair.