Santa, Take Two

After the mall Santa debacle, we thought Brady would freak when we proposed the idea of breakfast with Santa. Fortunately, he'll do pretty much anything for food, so he agreed. It was at Zach's golf club, and we invited the grandparents to join us. It went really well! Brady ate everything he could stuff into his face AND he sat on Santa's lap! There was a moment's hesitation where I thought he was going to faint when I put him on the guy's lap, but he did us proud and began listing all of the things he hopes to find under his tree come Christmas morning. Please notice the way Brady deeply ponders what to share with Santa; he is very serious about this Christmas list thing:

I just love this picture!

In addition to breakfast with Santa, Brady has had the distinct pleasure of riding yet another Christmas train. I was so proud of him! He went on all by himself, sat with a little boy he didn't know, and didn't make a fuss of it once. He's pretty shy (read: a Mama's boy), so I never know what he'll do in new situations. Once he's warmed up, though, he goes big or goes home. Or goes to sleep, but more on that in a minute...

Brady's riding partner was dressed to impress!

 Brady is quite possibly the best sleeper. Ever. 90% of the time he informs us when he would like to take his nap or go to bed at night. Sometimes if we're reading, he'll just shut the book and say, "That's enough. I need my bed." It's hilarious! Lately, he's been taking monster naps. He slept for 4 hours today! I checked on him twice to make sure he was okay. I think he must be going through a growth spurt or something--the kid spends more time asleep than awake these days. But whenever he does wake up, he has very specific expectations: Mom and Ella greet him at his bedside. He's shown no interest in climbing out of his crib and/or wanting to sleep in a bed, so my plan is to keep him caged up as long as humanly possible. And the weirdo loves it. When Ella and I come into the room to get him, he wants her up against the bars where she frantically reaches inside to touch him and then they have conversations. She screeches and blabbers; he tells her what a good sleep he just had.

One morning Ella was actually still asleep so I went in without her and Brady was very disappointed. Another afternoon after his nap, he suggested that I just leave Ella and then "go away, please." I fully intend to remind him of his fondness for his little sister whenever they start fighting on a daily basis. I'm pretty convinced the teenage years are going to be much like Dante's version of hell. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Today at church, where both kids were very well behaved again (Hallelujah!), one of the visiting nuns from India stopped over to say hello. We normally go to the 8 am mass, but today we opted to sleep in because I was out late the night before at the Livengoods' annual Christmas party. Anyway, the nun has yet to see Ella because we haven't been to the 11 am mass in forever, so she wanted to give us her good wishes. Well, make that she wanted to ask us awkward questions and then make my husband question my fidelity. After I convinced the nun that Ella was not adopted, she asked if both kids had the same father because Ella looks "like a Chinese baby. Almost black." Insane. The kid has a darker complexion than Brady, but who doesn't?! And Chinese? Really? I wasn't at all offended, mostly because I spent my entire life wishing I was some exotic mixed race breed (seriously, they make the most beautiful people), but this is just adding insult to injury: the girl is a picture of Zach! Oh well. Maybe we'll just start pretending she is some other race and we'll get mad college scholarships.