Santa!

This was an amazing experience, despite the fact that it took three hours of preparation, no morning nap (though I tried my hardest to get them down they refused), four poopy diapers, two different vomit episodes, three and a half outfit changes and a second cup of coffee to get out of the house and in the car by 10am.

I had no intentions of taking the boys to meet Santa today while Christmas shopping, but there was no one waiting in line. I figured I could at least push the stroller up the ramp and let them meet Jolly St. Nick up close and see what kind of reaction we'd get. If there seemed fear or hesitation I would just keep it short and move along. And at first the boys weren't sure if they liked this guy in red and white. They were bashful and only Evan was willing to smile but refused to look at Santa. Cameron just stared at him with a frown. But this Santa was the best one ever, really nice, soft spoken and very understanding that the boys might be afraid of him. He got down on eye level for them and really sweet talked them asked all kinds of questions and we spent about 5min just chatting. This might even be the actual Santa, he had a really fantastic "Ho Ho Ho!" too.

Evan really warmed up to him and Cameron was just too tired to give a reaction of any kind. We wished Santa a Merry Christmas and started down the exit ramp and then Evan started to cry and get really upset. He didn't want to leave Santa. Cameron wouldn't take his eyes off of him, and when we made our way back around to where the line should be (there was still no one there) he started flapping his arms and got excited to see Santa again. So back up the ramp we went and I plopped the boys on Santa's waiting lap for this photo. Cameron wasn't thrilled with the Elf photographer and really just needed a nap, but Evan thought she was hilarious. Good times were had by all today.

Here are some pics from earlier this week of the boys wearing their super-mini toddler sized feeding pump backpacks. They can't wear them with the ice packs in because that's just too much weight, fully loaded it's about 1lb 7oz and just uncomfortable enough to make them upset. But when you take the ice pack out they're fine for about 30min. They must stay in a smaller area though because they like to run whenever possible and are practicing running on their toes which shifts their center too far forward and we've had quite a few spills and head bonkings.