santa then and now

Baby G has never been super scared of strangers. He has his moments of anxiety, but for the most part he doesn't get really worked up about being in the arms of someone new. I had concerns with Santa, though. What child wouldn't be scared of someone with a giant white beard? His first visit to Santa's lap (last year when he was 5 months old) went off without a hitch because I just placed him in Santa's arms without him ever seeing who was holding him. He did watch me as I walked away so they could snap the picture and pointed at me like, "Hey, where are you going and who did you leave me with?" but there were no tears.

2007

This year I was definitely more worried because I knew I wouldn't be able to hide the fact that he was sitting on a bearded stranger from him. He has also started to get slightly more wary with unfamiliar faces in the past month or so. The best thing we did was to get the Santa visit done early on in the season when there was absolutely no one waiting in line. Baby G got to take his time warming up to the idea, and Santa and the elves were more than happy to let Baby G walk timidly up to Santa and then run back to me as many times as he needed to. Bless the person who thought to have Santa have a book to read to kids. That is what finally got Baby G onto Santa's lap without any protest. He sat there for quite sometime looking at the book, definitely not feeling comfortable, but also not crying.

2008

When I look at the two photos side by side I am amazed at how similar he looks in them. He is making the same, "I don't know about this Santa thing" face and he is pointing to me in both. I never thought I would be the type of mom to want to get pictures of their kids with Santa every year, but these are treasures to me now and I'm so glad I have them. But please, if Baby G is 15 and I am still trying to force him to sit on Santa's lap, feel free to smack some sense into me.