The Santa Menace

We never took Ethan to see Santa last year. He was only 3 months old, and it just seemed like a waste of time and money to go to the mall. By the time I found out about the free pictures with Santa in our little town, the dates had already passed. So this year, I knew I wanted to go see the downtown Santa. On Dec. 3rd, we headed out before Ethan's morning nap, only to find out later that Santa wouldn't arrive for a couple more hours. Determined to see Santa that weekend, we ventured out to the mall the following night. Unfortunately, the lowest picture price was $27 and personal cameras were prohibited, so we quickly changed our minds. Ethan and I stood off to the side and watched other kids greet Santa, though, and Ethan was entranced by the lights and decorations. We wandered the mall for a little while, and when we passed by Santa again, the line had disappeared, so we decided to go ahead and see him, even if we didn't end up getting any pictures.

As we waited for Santa to finish up with the one kid already in his lap, Ethan grinned and laughed for the girl taking pictures. She even commented, "Oh, you're going to be easy!" We approached the Santa throne, sat Ethan on his lap, and almost immediately were greeted with "WAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" There was no screaming or struggling to get away. He just sat there, pouty lip extended, wailing (it was absolutely adorable, actually). I tried to sit with him, but if Santa so much as looked at him, he started crying again. Ethan + Santa =/= BFFs.

Despite this less than successful introduction to Santa, we planned on going to see the downtown Santa this past weekend, since we could at least get some pictures, and maybe this Santa would be nicer (mall Santa was a bit of a jerk). This is the result:


This time it was full-on screaming and struggling to get away. He calmed down a little bit for the family picture, but he's still one unhappy baby.

Mother-of-the-year confession? I laugh my ass off every time I look at these pictures. Sure he's probably been traumatized, but these pictures are blackmail gold for the teen years!