Colton and Nathan visit Santa

On 12.23, Kristin and Colton came over for a playdate.

  The boys played at our house for a few minutes while Kristin and I decided it was time to fight the crowds and take the boys to see Santa.  (I'd tried the day before with Bethany, Izzy, Kristin, and Zachary but the line looked to be at least 2 hours long).  So, we piled the video camera, 2 Nikon's, 2 strollers, 2 diaper bags, 2 pacis, and a bunch of diapers and snacks into Kristin's car and away we went.  The mall hadn't even opened when we arrived, so we took our time getting out and decided we'd leave the diaper bags, strollers, Nathan's paci, and Nathan's snacks in the car... after all, surely there'd be no line at 9:54am right?  Wrong!  We waited in line for an hour and thankfully Kristin had cheerios.  The boys were very patient although they had no idea what they were in for!  

We decided they'd probably both scream, and since Colton is more sensitive to strangers than Nathan (and had already screamed at Santa once this year) he should go first so that Nathan's tears wouldn't make Colton feel worse.  Colton started screaming before Kristin even got him on Santa's lap.  It lasted all of about 5 seconds, but it felt like an eternity.  Colton held his breath for a while and then let out the most pitiful scream.  In those 5 seconds, I managed to get a few pics though.  Kristin was a good sport though and sat with Santa and Colton.

Nathan was an hour past nap time and a bit giddy and very tired.  We sat him on Santa's lap and he just looked at him... blank stare.  Then he touched his beard, and then whimpered a bit.  

Then he laid back and just sat there, no emotion, no noise, just quiet. 

Then all of a sudden he sat up and signed down, 

and when Santa put the reindeer hat on Nathan, that was the end of the peace.  Nathan welled up with tears and came toddling to me crying.  Poor babies!  

Here's a picture of Nathan and Santa last year and then this year... wow has he grown!

Here are the boys happy to be with their mommies away from that mean ole Santa Claus!