Santa!!!!!!
I hope when you read the title of this post, Buddy the Elf's "SANTAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! I know him!!!" comes into your head...cause it did for me.
Anyways, so last night we did our second annual visit with Scooter and Patrick to see Santa. On Mondays at a few of the malls in STL you can bring your dog to have their pic with Santa. I think this is the 6th or 7th year I've taken Scooter to see Santa--and the 2nd year I've taken Scooter with his little brother.
I remember posting their pic last year with this caption:
So yeah, 2013: they nailed it, and I got my wish for a hammy smile. Needless to say, 2014 had a lot to live up to in regards to the annual picture with Santa. And again, I wanted a good smile or a complete freak out (which, honestly, I was thinking the freak out was more likely to happen this year given his age and such).
Anyways, so we headed to a different mall this year that was closer to our house and we thought would be less crowded. Well, kind of--definitely closer to our house, but we got there at 5:30 for 6pm start time for pics and there was already a massive line! Ugh! Luckily I packed some snacks and toys to keep Patrick (and Scooter) entertained while we waited for Santa with our friends Lauren, Bob, and Braxton.
Did I mention that Patrick and Scooter wore matching red sweaters?!! Cause they totally did. It was adorbs. And Patrick was pretty entertained with watching all of the other kids and dogs run around him...for the first 40 minutes. Seriously, the last 5 minutes he decided it was meltdown time (hey, I don't blame him. He'd be sausaged in a tiny umbrella stroller for the past 40 minutes with me resisting every "out peassss" he asked for and combating it by shoveling goldfish or fruit snacks in his face). We were literally the next in line to see Santa and Patrick was screaming and wanting out of my grasp and wanting to run. Greatttttttttt. Complete freak out picture, here we come.
But alas! It was our turn and the magic of Santa was overpowering--I literally sat Patrick in Santa's lap (as Mike sat Scooter on his other knee) and BOOM! Hammy, cheesy smiles came all over Patrick's face (to my shock and surprise). He LOVED Santa. It was adorable. He'd have sat on his lap smiling and babbling in Patrick language forever I think.
Anyways, so here's 2014's gem of a Santa picture:
Yeah, 2015 is gonna be hard to beat these past two years...cause next year we'll be throwing in an 8 month old along with Scoots and will-be-two-and-a-half-year-old Patrick. Stay tuned for that.
Oh, and since I'm a sucker for comparison pics (no shocker here), here's the last two years side by side. Gosh, I love them both so much! And, side note, how much has gigantor Patrick grown?!! Sheesh!! Time sure keeps on slippin' into the futureeeeeeee.