Visit With Santa

Last night we decided to take the big man to meet Santa and get his photo taken. As Andy likes to say, this was done more for his mommy than for his benefit. I am totally ok with that assumption because I had a GREAT time taking him to see Santa. He has been quite fussy lately and we have been assuming it's because his gums are getting ready for his teeth to come in. This made me worried about how he would be with Santa. I chose last night mainly because I assumed that it would be a short line since it was black Friday and people probably wouldn't want to go see Santa on Friday night after shopping all day. I was right because there was no line to see Santa and this made mommy and daddy very happy.

My parents (aka grandpa Jeff and grandma Vicki) were in town for Thanksgiving so they joined us to visit Santa and they too were excited to see the big man's first visit. They even got the big man a "My First Christmas" onesie that he wore to see Santa. Again, this was more for the adults entertainment than it was for a 5 month old baby who had no idea what was going on. I must say, even after being pretty crabby lately he  was pretty good with Santa. For a brief minute his lower lip started to quiver as Santa held him up and he stared back at Santa in the below picture. This is when I thought the whole Santa adventure was going to come to an end.

I was wrong as he did not cry at all. Instead he just stared at Santa and wondered what was going on. Santa turned him around for a few more photo shoots and Maxim just stared at everything around him like the curious baby he is.

Then Santa busted out a very colorful book that glowed from the inside and this got the big man's attention very fast. It's also a favorite photo of mine because it appears Santa is reading to him.

We then had one last photo opportunity where Santa and the big man waved to everyone.

Of course I paid a pretty penny for the above photos, but what better way to say Merry Christmas than to say with very over priced photos of your super cute baby with Santa?

While we were there I struck up a conversation with a mother who had a three month old with her. The little girl was born on September 4th which of course is very close to my due date. So to see Maxim and this little girl next to each other was nice to compare his size. They were the same size except Maxim was much longer than the little girl. For once I got to see that he is right in line with the size that he should be instead of always comparing him to premie sizes. I get stopped all the time when I am out from people commenting on him and asking if he is two or three months old and when I say he is five I get weird looks. I then have to inform strangers that he is a 10 week premie and that is when the strangers faces change from scared to awe.

Following the visit with Santa we did a family photo shot in front of the Christmas tree at Kierland Commons.

One happy Max.

...and he is done!