Santa is da bomb!

Phew!! I was getting worred that Ethan would be eternally afraid of Santa Claus.
I thought back to his first Christmas (2002). He was 6 months old. I didn't expect him to like Santa at all, and I was right. So we just ignored the whole thing. Next year (2003), he was 18 months old. My dad dressed up as Santa for our coffee group picnic and Ethan cried buckets. He was totally freaked out!! I stayed away from Santa for the rest of that Christmas season! Last year (2004), he was 2 and 1/2. I thought he would be fine. He wasn't petrified beyond belief like the previous year, but he was still very cautious. At his preschool party he mustered up all his courage to walk up to Santa and get his present, but he would only shake his hand! No hug. I decided not to attempt the "Photo With Santa at the Mall". Waaay too hard.

This year (2005), we had a breakthrough!! Today we went to the preschool party and when Santa called out Ethan's name he walked up confidently and gave Santa the biggest, squeeziest cuddle in the world! He had a big cheesy smile on his face, though Rob and I could tell it was tinged with shyness. Most of the other children were too shy to give hugs, so I didn't expect Ethan to do it! Tyler was more than happy to receive his present from Santa. I knew he would be, he is such a social butterfly and never afraid of strangers. In fact, he would have been fine getting a Santa photo last year (at 3 months of age) but as Ethan was still very wary, I decided not to go there!

So .... the upshot of all this is that finally, after 3 and 1/2 years of being a mummy, I will allow myself to queue for hours at the mall just to get a photo of my kids sitting on Santa's knee! I feel like once I achieve this, I will advance to the next level of Real Motherhood.
Now I just hope both kids will smile nicely for the camera ... stay tuned, I will be sure to post an update when I have the photo in my hot little hand!