SANTA!!!!!

Ahhh...our very first visit to see Santa and once again I was nervous of Ryans reaction...and once again she took me by surprise (I often wonder at what point I am going to stop being surprised that she is sooo cool?). We put her in her cutie Christmas dress supplied my Aunt Judy (see above blog post) and attempted to squeeze her incredibly fat feet into her brand new black shoes that grandma bought her-too small. We decided to let her choose the shoes she would wear and she settled on her red/white Nikes...not too shocking, the girls loves her kicks, but at least they matched! I imagined she chose them in case she needed a fast get away, but who knows. This was not only Ryans first visit to see Santa, but our first outing with both girls...a challenge I sincerely hope we get better at. We loaded up the house and off we went. The line wasnt long at all (first obstacle down) however the few kids that were in front of her were either freaking out on Santas lap or freaking out in line in anticipation of sitting on Santas lap...I was merely hoping Ryan didnt catch on. Ok, our turn, Jamey put Ryan in his lap and she just sat there-staring intensely at him, as if she was trying to figure out what his intentions were. They snapped the shot, and we wandered over to get her cookies-no freak out, no melt down, no smile-nothing but a 2 minute staring contest in which Ryan won!
Now here is where I hope we get better of traveling with the girls-we skeedaddled back to the Jeep, I loaded up the diaper bag, camera, my purse, the snacks, oh and yeah, Leah, while Jamey was strapping Ryan in-then we both hopped into the front seat and took off. Whew-team effort seemed to work and both girls were in safely and nothing got left behind...or so we thought-hours later when Jamey took Ryan to the grocery store and he was loading up he realized that the stroller wasnt in the back of the car. OH NO!!! Great-we left it in the mall parking lot. The way I figure it-there was simply a failure to communicate-I thought Jamey was going to grab it, and he thought I already had put it in....geez. We called-no stroller. Someone got themselves a nice (albeit very dirty) stroller for Christmas. Ok, lesson learned. And for our first outing, as long as it was only a stroller left behind and NOT one the girls-we are ok with that!
Not to mention the very cool new stroller we got to replace it (Thanks Papa Joe) was a much needed upgrade anyway!