Visit to Santa

A couple of weeks ago we took Ayla to the mall to see Santa. We figured she would be a little apprehensive, but were hoping thbat she would still at least stay on his lap long enough for a picture. We tried preparing her for it by talking about Santa for days before, looking at pictures of him, looking at Mommy's picture of when Mommy was little and sat with Santa, and looking at Ayla sitting with Santa last year. When we got to the mall she was immediately nervous. I tried pointing at the other kids and saying stuff like "look at that little girl she's happy sitting on Santa's lap. And "See Santa's a nice guy, he brings presents." It didn't work, when it was our turn she wouldn't walk up to him I had to basically drag her and then she started screaming, not crying, screaming and yelling "No, No!" Well I wanted to get a picture of her anyway I could, happy, sad, angry, whatever so I was trying to force her to sit for thirty seconds to get a picture. She was having none of it while I was trying to force her onto his lap she hauled back her foot and kicked Santa as hard as she could, while screaming "No!" at him. He promptly picked her up and handed her back to me. The only way we could get her to stay at least in the vicinity of Santa was to sit with her, so Ayla's 2010 picture with Santa ended up being a family picture with Santa. Then the little squirt wouldn't even smile. We got the best we could. Judge for yourself.

I included her 2009 picture so you could compare. I guess she is smarter this year and has figured out that old guys with beards who like to hold little kids might be a little sketchy.