Santa Claus Progress

Last year we took Hannah to see Santa Claus completely unaware of how she would react. We stood in line for 45 minutes while she watched all of the other children walk up and climb in his lap. When it was finally our turn, Hannah held on for dear life and screamed bloody murder while I tried to take a quick picture.

See?



So this year we decided to try the Santa experience again fully prepared for a complete melt down. While Hannah had no interest in sitting in Santa's lap, she agreed to stand in front of him while I took a few pictures. I think the candy cane, pencil and rubber bracelet Santa gave her might have had something to do with it. Instead of learning that Santa is really a nice man, I think we may have just taught her that strange men give you presents if you don't scream.

Elmo's Party

Since Steve and I have been together, we've always spent Thanksgiving with his family. My family has never really done anything special for the day except enjoy a day off of work or school. But since it's a long weekend, and my mom's birthday is November 25th, we always go visit her for her birthday more than Thanksgiving. So, this past Thanksgiving when Hannah saw my mom's birthday present wrapped in pretty pink paper while we were in Georgia, she informed us she was "reh-reh go to the party." For four and half hours while we drove from Columbus to Pulaski she talked about going to the party. About half way through the trip, it went from just a party to Elmo's party. I'm still not sure where the idea of Elmo having a party came from, but Hannah was adamant that we should be going. We made it to my mom's house, and my mom unwrapped her birthday presents. I think Hannah may have been a little disappointed in my mom's gifts and that Elmo didn't show up for the "party."

So when we heard that Sesame Street Live would be coming to Nashville, we decided Hannah would love to go. I worried that the adult size characters would scare her since she'd only seen Elmo on TV, in books or the doll size version. We tried to prepare her by telling her we were going to see a BIG Elmo so she wouldn't be too freaked out at the show.

For the first 15 minutes of the performance, Hannah didn't move. She stared in complete awe at the stage. But as soon as she realized the child in front of her had some sort of toy that could spin and light up, her attention quickly shifted from the stage. She still enjoyed the characters, but she constantly pointed to the child's toy and said, "I have that." The toy didn't look particularly safe to me, so I didn't jump at the chance to spend $15 so my child could poke her eye out. Even without the toy, I think Hannah did very well and really enjoyed her first musical.