hayden's first year he was almost 1. he loved him. he would look up at him and touch his beard and even babble at him. every year after that it's gone down hill. each year we've at least been able to make him calm down for 2 seconds enough to get a picture with him sitting on his lap. santa is holding hayden tight and squeezing hayden's legs between his legs in order to stop the break-away attempt. it's really a cruel thing. making your child, who obviously hates it, sit on some strangers lap.
last year was the worst year yet. the kid was almost 4 years old and he had such a freak out that we didn't get any pictures of him with santa. he didn't sit in his lap at all. after some coaxing, i got him to stand relatively close to him, but only because i was a buffer between them. i thought this stuff would get better with age, not worse. so yeah, his 4th christmas and there was no picture of him with santa.
this year we've talked A LOT about it. about how he needs to show talan how it's done and how he needs to tell santa about all of the toys that he wants. we go over the list of what he's going to tell him. i had high hopes that this year was going to be a good year. dave didn't think so.
so jenn was in town with rainah and we decided to all head over to the mall yesterday to visit santa. for whatever reason, anytime we go to get pictures taken, talan is in a serious not smiling mood. but at least he doesn't cry. hayden was doing well the whole way through the line. we got closer and he started doing this fake cry type noise and would bury his face in me. i continued to bribe him and tell him he would only get a cookie if he was good and sat on santa's lap for a picture. i also showed him how santa was giving presents to the kids that sat on his lap.
rainah was up first. she's the same age that hayden was his first year, however, rainah does not like being left with other people and watching her mother walk away. jenn can't even leave the room without rainah crying and crawling after her. so jenn wasn't so sure it would go so well. i told her "at least she's small enough that you can force her to sit in his lap. just put her there and walk away." we couldn't do that with hayden last year.
jenn sat rainah on santa's lap and she looked up at him right away. it was really cute. they were able to snap a picture of that right before her HUGE bottom lip stuck out and the tears came. she would cry, then stop for a minute, look up at him again and then stick the lip back out. so really, jenn had the best of both worlds. she got a few cute shots and then some good ones of her crying. those are always cute....when the kids isn't FOUR YEARS OLD!!!!
hayden kept asking "is it my turn yet?!" and it wasn't even in a panicked way. he almost seemed excited to get his turn on santa's lap. so jenn goes over and picks rainah up and we're told to wait a minute before we went over. hayden didn't even want to wait. we finally were able to go over and he sat right down and i put hayden down on his other leg. i stepped back and we started taking pictures, until talan, our little grabber, grabbed his real beard and wouldn't let go. hayden wouldn't really smile, and at one point even started sticking his tongue out. but later, i realized, how much could i really ask for?! last year we didn't get him even close to santa at least he was sitting there on his lap, usually looking at the camera and then started telling him everything he wanted for christmas.
talan did fine, as expected. he'd look up at santa, he'd look around, try to squirm out of his lap. the usual. i was trying to take as many pictures as i could before they kicked us out and then finally went over to get the boys. santa handed them a puzzle and we started to walk out and hayden said "i didn't want this present. i wanted aquadots and he didn't have them. and i told him i wanted a new doodle pad but he didn't have them either." i had to try to explain several times that this was just a little present for coming to see him and now he would go back up north and tell the elves what toys hayden wanted. he will then come and fill his stocking on christmas eve and then leave his presents at grandma's house . i think he's beginning to understand it a bit more, but he was a little disappointed all he got was a puzzle that he could have put together when he was 2 years old.
rainah and talan after seeing santa. if you look real close, you can kind of see talan's two teeth on the bottom:
waiting in line in the "snow globe" to see santa. they were all looking up at least:
hayden having fun looking at his crazy head in the ornaments:
talan and me waiting to see santa:
rainah, jenn, talan, me and hayden in the snow globe:
rainah and santa. you really need to click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can see her faces:
talan grabbing his beard:
santa trying to break free from talan's death grip:
santa is saying "seriously, when are you going to get these kids off my lap?!":
there's the tongue:
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