umm ... now go away.
No, seriously. Leave. Now! Because my little girl has decided to go absolutely batpoop when she sees him.
Last year we were in St. Louis at Thanksgiving and we decided to take our then 9-month-old daughter to the mall to see Santa. I thought because she was so little she could be easily fooled to sit on anybody's lap for a span of 30 seconds. Nope. After 3 seconds she began crying uncontrollably and thus we did NOT use any pictures of her with Santa last year.
Fast forward to the present. We eschewed the Mall Santa this year knowing we had no shot with that. BUT thanks to a copy of "The Polar Express" from Jillian's sister we have been reading about Santa, pointing to him, and having Megan even say "Santa." I thought we might be making inroads.
And then her daycare had their holiday party. For 18 to 24 month olds this consists of a snack of rice krispie treats, cheese cubes, and some sort of red kool-aid type concoction. Woo hoo! But the surprise was that Santa also came to visit. As we heard him making his way through the various classrooms I began to ponder what would happen when he came in. I predicted all the kids would go nuts. I was almost right. Two of the nine kids in Megan's room remained calm. Megan? Well, I think Jillian still has the claw marks to prove her unhappiness.
The ironic thing is that Megan WANTED to keep an eye on him, even though she was scared of him. So when he went to the 4-year-old room, she wanted to go in there and watch. When all the kids in there were hugging and high-fiving Santa I hoped she would pick up those cues that he was safe. Nope. When he walked past us, said hi to her, and rubbed her back, I've never seen her face so red. She buried her head so deep into my chest and practically willed him to leave.
And then, when Santa set up shop in the middle of the center, she wanted to sit with Jillian on a bench ten feet away and watch, still scared. She's an interesting little girl. So it appears we're 0-for-2 with the Santa thing. Maybe next year ...
4 comments:
Poor baby doll!!!! That's so funny that she wanted to watch Santa!! Our oldest is the same and is still terrified...of anything in a costume! We've learned that we cannot rationalize an irrational fear, just comfort and hug.
Sad, but cute! I love the first picture - as if she's squinting in order to not really see Santa, but still sort of see him!
My niece was terrified of Santa the winter that she was about Megan's age. She was so afraid of him when she saw him in person that, for the rest of the holidays, she'd start crying anytime she saw a *picture* of him (on a Christmas card, napkin, anywhere!). Made for a very tearful Christmas season!
Aw....I think everyone has a story about how they used to be scared of santa. You only have a problem if she doesn’t outgrow it! I bet by age 3 or 4 she’ll be knocking down other kids clamoring to get on St. Nick’s lap....
In the meantime- she’s in good company- check it out:
http://www.sketchysantas.com/
It's only a matter of time... as soon as she figures out that Santa = presents, I'm sure she'll be A-OK with him! Cute pics!
Post a Comment