Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Or, he's already here. At least at the mall. We took Brady get his picture taken with Santa last weekend. On the way there, my husband and I wondered what Brady's reaction would be. 16 month olds sometimes don't fare too well with Santa. Would he cry? Sit there like a deer in the headlights? Would we be able to get him to smile?

We get to the mall and are greatly relieved to see that there is no line. We walk up and are greeted by a nice but slightly concerned Santa's Helper/photographer.

Us: "Hi. We'd like to get our son's picture taken with Santa."

Santa's Helper: "Great! How old is he?"

Us: "16 months"

Santa's Helper: "Hmmm... How do you think he will do?"

Us: "We have no idea, but he did meet a roaming Santa when we were at Toys-R-Us the other day and liked touching his beard."

Santa's Helper: (starting to visibly relax) "That's a good sign."

Turns out all of our fears were unwarranted. As we started walking towards where Santa was sitting, Brady dropped daddy's hand, ran with his arms outstretched toward Santa and asked to be picked up. Santa picks him up, sets him in his lap and everyone smiles for the camera.


















Immediately after the picture was taken, Santa leans down and asks Brady what he wants for Christmas. Brady, however has no time to talk and squirms off Santa's lap and runs off to his next adventure (which at that moment was checking out the rope barrier around Santa's area) .