Man. My kids really love santa. I didn't even have to photoshop Biscuits into the photo at all because he wasn't on the verge of crying and clinging to me like a koala bear just because we were in vicinity of the big furry man. How fortuitous. Side note, I found out that nearly everyone puts their crying kid into santa's lap because sobbing children are hilarious and adorable. I tried to approximate what it might have looked like, for the sake of adorableness, but Biscuits is a terrible fake cry-er:
Still, not shabby for a 17-month-old. Bears is super into Christmas this year. He loves talking about Santa and discussing various Christmas stories. Despite my admitting that Santa is just part of a story that we tell based off of a really generous guy named St Nicholas that lived a long time ago, Bears remains doggedly convinced that Santa, himself, is real. Along with the treat fairy, potty fairy, nap fairy, witches, monsters, vampires, and (of course) zombies. I'm thinking of making things like Santa into an exercise in critical thinking and just drop hints over the next couple of years to help him discover the truth for himself. We'll see how it goes.
Earlier today, Bears stuffed a balloon in his shirt and said that he was going to have a baby. He then pulled the balloon out, plopped it on the floor and pronounced himself a mommy. He then began lamenting the fact that it didn't have yellow hair and began trying to tie another balloon to the top and with a little help from me, his baby soon had lustrous, yellow-balloon hair. But oh no. It didn't have a face. Bears asked me to draw a happy vampire face because he loves vampires.
Then he realized that babies are sometimes sad. And are not really vampires. So I drew a "real baby" on the other side:
He actually spent a good five minutes rocking the balloon when it was sad until it turned into a happy vampire baby. This is probably the closest he's ever come to playing any caregiver-type game. He'll be a great daddy one day, I just know it. Full disclosure, after that five minutes of gentle play, he then spent at least ten minutes kicking and throwing the balloon around. But. In Bears' defense, that balloon/humpty dumpty baby is one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen.
