I took Maya to get her picture taken with Santa this morning.  We’ll call it moderately successful since I did end up with a picture, just not exactly the picture I was planning on

This morning as soon as Maya got up I started talking about Santa and how we were going to go see him today.  I told her she would get see Santa and tell him what she wanted for Christmas and get her picture taken with him.  She was excited about the idea, although you could tell right away that she suspected she should maybe be a little nervous about this little adventure.   Since she seemed to be up for this little adventure and in a pretty good mood today I decided it was a go.  I got her all dressed up in an adorable dress, a pretty pair of red shoes and put her hair up in a little bow.  We were all set.

When we got to mall she was still excited about seeing Santa.  Her excitement was still there as we stood in line waiting our turn to see the man in red.  I had high hopes that this year would be different than last year.

Last year she was going through a big stranger anxiety phase (signs of that stranger anxiety still sometimes make an appearance, but less often).  She was not big on any strangers, or friends for that matter.  No one else could hold her except me and many people made her cry just by looking at her.  When we went to get her picture taken with Santa we weren’t expecting much.  We wouldn’t have been surprised at all to walk away empty handed or with a picture of our daughter screaming on Santa’s lap.  By some luck we managed to get a pretty decent picture though.  She isn’t smiling, but she isn’t crying either.  The lady taking the picture managed to snap the shot at just the exact second before she started freaking out.  This is what we ended up with, pretty good considering what it could have been like.

This year I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Her stranger anxiety has faded a bit, she warms up to people much better now, and she loves the idea of Santa.  We did try a couple of weeks ago to get her picture taken but she wasn’t in a particularly good mood that day and wasn’t having it.  I might have got a decent picture if the girl taking the photos had been on the ball because she sat with Santa for a good few seconds before she cried and asked me to pick her back up.  Unfortunately the girl wasn’t ready and didn’t take the shot, bummer.  Since that initial try we’ve talked about it with her a lot and she has been open to the idea on several occasions.  I got really excited when we were standing in line and she said “My turn Santa picture”.  I thought, oh this might just work out really well.  As I approached Santa though it all went down hill.  She clung to me very tightly and said “no Santa”.  I bargained with her and said I would sit with her.  She was on my lap but apparently too close to jolly old St. Nick for her comfort and cried most of the time.  The lady operating the camera managed to get the water works to stop for about 10 seconds by making ridiculously silly faces.  It was long enough to get this shot.

I’ll take it, at least she isn’t crying, you can see tears in her eyes, but only if you look really closely.

Here’s hoping next year we get a picture of our beautiful little girl smiling on Santa’s lap, I won’t hold my breath though (and I’ll go assuming I’ll be in the picture again)