A visit with Santa

Last year Pookie's visit with Santa went very smooth.  I don't think Pookie even knew what hit him.  I zoomed into the mall, wheeled the carriage to where Santa was at and plunked Pookie on Santa's lap faster than Pookie can say "Mama."  This year has been a very different experience.  At first I thought that things might go well.  Pookie has been doing really well with costume characters, like Donald Duck.  I had a small hope that this would translate to a visit with Santa.  Apparently, no such luck. 

A couple of weeks ago, my Aunt, Cousin, Pookie and I went to a craft fair.  There was a very nice Santa there.  Pookie wanted no part of saying hello to Santa.  In fact, he buried his head in my shoulder and refused to even open his eyes.  No big deal, I told myself.  There are plenty of opportunities to visit Santa.  Last Wednesday, I needed to get my glasses fixed.  We wandered around the mall for awhile to kill some time while my glasses were getting worked on.  I figured it would be a good idea for Pookie to try to see Santa again.  Once again, he had his arm over his head and he wouldn't even look at Santa.  Humm, we seem to have a trend here.  So on Friday I had errands to run, one of which was at the mall.  I figured I would try again.  Once again, no luck.  Although this time, as we are leaving the mall, Pookie announces STOP! followed by a motion to go back inside.  At this point, I have other errands to run and I figured it would be better to just cut our losses and try again another day. 

Monday was the day!  After breakfast I told Pookie that we ARE going to visit Santa and all I need is for him to sit on Santa's lap and get a few pictures.  He looked at me as if I were off my rocker.  At this point, I probably am.  Then, I had a brilliant idea.  I needed to pick up a book at the library, and Pookie loves books.  So I told him that we could get books after we saw Santa.  You would have thought that I had just told him that he had won a life time supply of blueberries.  All the way to see Santa he kept saying "Book!"  After we left Santa, all I heard was "Book! Book! Book!"  I felt so proud.  Pookie isn't quite 2 yet, and I have managed to instill a love affair with books.  Score one for Mama!  On a side note, Santa was very nice, but the photographer completely ROCKED!  He managed to get Pookie laughing and that is a good thing indeed!  I seriously thought that this would be the year of the screaming child pictures.