We went to see Santa last night.

It was magical. 

Caleb is almost 3 and he seems to be really "getting it" this year.  Which is just the greatest thing ever for a parent.  It brings back the magic of Christmas in a way that nothing else ever will.

So for the last 3-4 weeks, Caleb and I have been practicing for our visit with Santa.  Caleb is a kid that does better when he's prepared for an event.  If you spring something on him, he gets shy or cries sometimes.  Thus, to make our visit to Santa as enjoyable as possible, I've been doing my prep work.

It went something like this:

Mom-mom: Caleb, when we go see santa, he'll pull you up on his lap like this and say "Ho Ho Ho!  What do you want for Christmas little boy?"

Caleb:  Mmmm-hmmmm

Mom-mom:  And what are you going to tell him?  What do you want for Christmas?

Caleb:  A... a.... Big BIG ROBOT!!!

Mom-mom:  Anything else?

Caleb:  Ahhh... a big, BIG ROCKET!!!

Mom-mom:  Well those are great presents!  Good job! 

We've practiced like this probably 20 times.  And on the way to the mall last night, we practiced it again.  He had this stuff DOWN!

So we get there, we go to see Santa... and he's on break.  Hmph!  We go do a little shopping and come back 10 minutes before Santa is expected back so we can be one of the first in line. 

Caleb is SO EXCITED.

Santa walks into the area and Caleb is waving and hollering "HI SANTA!!"  He is SO  ready for this!  And as a parent I'm excited because he LOVES Santa and isn't scared.  I'm patting myself on the back for doing such an amazing job preparing him for this moment.

We're second in line and the family ahead of us has 3 kids.  So we have to wait about 5 minutes and Caleb is literally dancing in place and I have the biggest smile on my face.

Then it's our turn.

Caleb sprints over to Santa and gives him the biggest hug ever!  Santa pulls him onto his lap and is talking to him... and Caleb is hugging Santa.  And then the photo guy gets their attention to get a photo.  While I'm looking at the photos, Santa is talking to Caleb and I'm thinking Caleb is telling Santa what he wants and I'm so excited.  Caleb is done and runs over to me and I'm so proud of my little boy. 

And then we have to wait a few minutes for our photos.  Suddenly Caleb bursts into tears.  Seriously, into full on "my heart is broken" tears.

I ask him what is the matter and he tells me "I need tell Santa I want big robot!"

Uh oh.

He forgot to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.

He is unconsolable.  I go pay for our photos and he is seriously just sobbing.  We get to the car and I try all the parent logic.

"Don't worry honey, Mommy already told Santa what you want!"
"Baby, it's OK.  I'm sure Santa will bring you a big robot."
"I'll call Santa on the phone tonight and we can tell him what you want."

None of this works.  He just keeps sobbing that he needs Santa.

I tell him we'll go back to see Santa again.  This does not help.

Finally, Daddy says that maybe we should write Santa a letter.  Somehow this gets Caleb to calm down.  I had no idea Caleb knew what a letter was. 

So that night, we sit down at the dining room table and we write Santa a letter.  Here is a photo:

Caleb's little eyes lit up when I showed him the letter and we talked about how it would get to Santa so that Santa would know what he wanted.

We put it in the mailbox and all was right with the world again.

Although now he's talking about wanting to see Santa again :) 

Christmas through the eyes of a child is truly magical.  I forgot how exciting Christmas can be and I am looking forward to seeing his eyes light up with joy when he gets that big big robot.

Thank you Santa!

Remember how I used to post videos of my conversations with Caleb during dinner time?  Well our "conversations" have evolved.  Now we actually have reall dinner time conversations.  I'd say about half of our time is me telling him to face forward and eat is food and not get distracted by toys and... yadda yadda yadda.  The other half is "how was your day?" kind of talk, which is really fun.

Most days Caleb lies to me and tells me he did things he didn't actually do.  I check with our nanny to see if his stories are real or not.  I just think it's funny he makes stuff up. 

So now, I decided to make dinner time into story telling time.  When we run out of things to say, in order to keep his attention, we make up a story.  Caleb tells me the major details, and I narrate it with voices and sound effects and hand motions.  In general, we get alot of laughs out of story time.  Since we get so many laughs, I thought I'd share a Caleb story with you.  I'll highlight the details that Caleb provided me with.

This is last night's story:

Once upon a time there was a robot.  He was blue.  His name was Robot Robot. 

He lived in a world of red robots... so he was a little different.

One day, Robot Robot blasted off! (add a countdown and rocket noises here)

He went to the moon!  When he got there, he saw the earth.  And it was big and blue and beautiful!

And then... he missed his Mom-mom (that's caleb's name for me).  He was very sad and cried because he missed his Mom-mom so much.

So he blasted off again! (add a countdown and rocket noises here)

He flew back to earth and landed.  And then he blasted off again!  He flew around earth looking for his Mom-mom.

He put on his binoculars (put your hands up by your eyes like binoculars) and he loooooked and loooooked and looooooked for his Mom-mom.

Then he saw her!  "There she is!" he yelled.  (point and pretend you see Mom-mom)

So he landed... and then he... put back on his binoculars! (put your hands up by your eyes like binoculars)

Apparently he didn't land close enough to Mom-mom, she was too far away!  So he saw her through his binoculars and yelled "Here I am Mom-mom!"

Then he ran up to her and gave her a BIIIIIG hug (pretend you're hugging your mommy) and lots of kisses (make kissing noises)!  "Mom-mom, I love you!" he said.

Then he told Mom-mom, "My tummy hurt." (point to your tummy)

So Mom-mom had to check to see if he had a temperature (put your hand on your forehead like you're checking for a fever).

She declared, "You don't have a fever my little Robot Robot!"

And then she gave him a slice of orange and he ate it and he felt much better! (we were eating an orange with dinner)

The end

Maybe next time I'll video tape this so you can enjoy the creative process :)  My son sure does have an imagination.  But I also find his stories are very indicative of what he is obsessed with at a particular time.  Last night it was rockets, space, robots and Mom-mom!

Hopefully as we make up more stories, I can post them here.  Enjoy!