Santa 2009

As you might remember from this post, last year's trip to visit Santa did not go as planned. Little Man was so freaked out that for months afterwards if you asked him about Santa he would make his whole body shake to show you how scared he was. I was determined that this year he would either love it or leave it. So this morning, combining a planned playdate with some friends with a trip to visit Santa, ensured that he would at least have fun at one activity. Papa Bear surprised us by taking off the morning to go with us. Little Man was so excited (in theory) and so we talked to him about his choices. He could give Santa a high five, sit on his lap, tell him what he wanted for Christmas or he could walk away and not see Santa if that was what he wanted. All morning, I ran through these choices with him. His answers changed from high fives to sitting on his lap and back again. But in the moment, he was enthralled by Santa and wanted to give him his impossible list of Christmas wishes. (yes, somehow I have to figure out how to get a Giant and a Giant Orange Dog for him under the tree).

Peanut, on the other hand, has moved firmly into the stranger and separation anxiety stage of infancy at exactly the wrong time. At the moment, he screams if I leave the room, throws himself out of people's arms to get back to me and apparently hates Santa. We were happy to get a slightly disgruntled picture of him with Santa as opposed to the straight up screaming ones. We even picked him up, comforted him, got him smiling and tried again and the best we could get was disgruntled baby about to cry.