This evening, I went temporarily insane took Adana shopping with me at the mall. Guess who she found seated on a plush red velvet throne, surrounded by acres of synthetic snow drifts and an entire army of automatronic reindeer in various robotic poses?
I think this was the first time in her life that she has actually come face to face with the big man himself - Santa Claus. (Well, except for that big buff black Santa that we had on the military base in Turkey. They must have pulled him straight out of a Marines training camp. There was no bowl full of jelly on that bad boy. Luckily, Adana was only a week old, so I don't think she suffered any lasting trauma from the experience.)
Adana was ENTHRALLED by her first encounter with Santa. She stood rooted by the fence around his enclosure. She stared, mouth hanging open, as child after child climbed up on his lap to chat with him. Finally, I dragged her away. As we were leaving, Santa himself came out and gave her a candy cane. She took it tenderly and promptly thanked him. He asked if she's been a good girl and she silently nodded yes. Then we turned and walked away to finish our shopping.
Later, as we were driving home, she announced out of the blue, "I think there are two Santas."
"That Santa didn't say Ho Ho Ho. And he didn't have any elves. And he only gave candy canes, not presents. The real Santa who gives presents must be at the North Pole."
Crap. If this is what she's coming up with as a 3-year old, I can only imagine how she'll respond to the tooth fairy in a few years . . . I'm picturing 6 year old Adana, upon losing her first tooth, leaving a note under her pillow: "Look lady, why don't you just go ahead and deposit the money directly into my Pay Pal account."
5 comments:
she's no dummy!! thats for sure!
She's too smart for her own good!! I love to hear Adana stories!!
We finally told our kids that the dog ate the tooth fairy. Our TF was so slothful and inconsistent, I think they were happy to envision her as puppy chow.
Yes. Kids are smart. But while they're little, they'll believe whatever you tell them. Take it from a veteran -- milk the santa thing for all it's worth. Kids need magic, and you need one month a year where you have a threat that actually gets their attention.
(And please don't tell any of my relatives or other people who may think I'm just a middle-aged prude, but I would have paid cash to have a chance to sit on your Turkish santa's lap. I'm not necessarily proud of that...)
Adana is too smart, and so very funny. I can just see her thinking through it all.
Another gem, which you would have missed if you had gone to the RS activity last night!
I'd love to hear more about how shopping at the mall went with a 3 year old in tow. I can only imagine...
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