A Visit with Santa

This story starts with another parade - the Holiday one to be more specific.  Ryan and I walked the kids downtown to see the parade on a very very cold Saturday morning.  While we were walking down there I mentioned to Isla that Santa would be at the end of the parade so she wouldn't be freaked out (Santa has done this to her in the past).  Not sure what it is with young kids and Santa - they love him yet fear him at the same time.  Anywho . . .

Trying to keep warm during the parade:

The parade turned out to be a looooooooong one and about an hour into it I couldn't feel my toes so we decided to head back home.  Isla was not happy about this at all.  I tried to explain that we were all cold and needed to warm up, but she replied back that she wanted to see Santa.  In order to avoid losing my toes and an Isla meltdown I mentioned to her that we could go and see Santa later that day thinking that she would probably forget about it.  The thing I'm learning about Isla is that her memory is getting better.  Later that day she asked if we could go and see Santa and being the good mom that I am (most of the time), I put her and Drew into the car and drove them to the mall.  I figured all she wanted to do was look at him and watch him, but imagine my shock when my painfully shy daughter asked if she could sit on his lap.  I almost fell over.  I quickly went with the kids to stand in line for Santa, but of course was informed that Santa was taking a break to feed his reindeer. Since we didn't have time to wait for Santa I promised Isla we would come back the next day.

The next morning, the first thing Isla asked about was when she could go and see Santa.  So again, I packed up her and Drew (and wrangled Ryan) into the car to head out to the mall.  We ended up being the one of the first ones in line.  I thought Isla would back out, but she waited in line patiently with her brother:

She did look a little nervous I guess.  When their time came they both went right up to Santa and sat on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas (Drew - a fire truck, Isla - a baby doll) and took a picture. The result was an awkward smile by both children, but hey, at least there were no tears:

I was so proud of Isla though - maybe she starting to come out of the painfully shy stage (yay!)?