This year, one family decided to change things up. Alan Lawrence, the founder of That Dad Blog, turned his adorable 4-month-old baby into the elf. All of a sudden, the Elf on the Shelf became the most adorable thing since fluffy kittens. Interviewed on “Today,” Lawrence said that he always thought the elf was kind of unsettling. At the same time, he liked the story behind it and all the imagination that went into it.
This holiday season, a light bulb lit up in Lawrence’s head. He was going to make the elf come alive. He already had the cutest baby in the world, according to him, so he decided to turn his son into the elf. Lawrence, an art director, is an expert at photo editing. He was able to set up his son in a variety of different positions, editing out whoever was holding the little one so it appeared as though the 4-month-old was really enacting all the mischief himself.
If you’re familiar with the Elf on the Shelf, you probably know that there are several typical poses that many families replicate. There’s the one where the elf encases the entire toilet in wrapping paper, sitting on the tank with pride when he’s done. Then there’s the scene where the elf is sucking up syrup through a straw. The little guy definitely has a sweet tooth. Lawrence duplicated all of these, and then he got even more inventive. One photo shows his baby elf playing Connect Four with a toy dinosaur. In another picture, the baby is stuffing chocolate-chip cookies into the VCR. Perhaps the most mind-blowing is the one where the baby is perched atop the shower curtain rod, dad peeking out of the shower in utter surprise.
This dad sure had a lot of time on his hands, especially considering he has five other children. Lawrence has received an outpouring of praise for his photos, but he gives all the credit to baby Rockwell. Besides being completely endearing, Rockwell cooperated like a champ. Lawrence said it almost seemed like the baby knew what was going on.
