Dear Max: Happy Birthday to Daddy!

December 8, 2009
Dear Max,
Today is Daddy's Birthday! He is 34 years old! It's crazy to think that last year we celebrated Daddy's birthday in the Hospital with you. I will never forget, they had just moved us from the PICU floor to the pediatric floor and it was just about dinner time. Grammie had come down that morning and had been in the hospital with us all day. She suggested to Daddy and I that she babysit and we go out to dinner. I hadn't left the hospital in over 24 hours! It was Grammie's first time babysitting you and our first time as parents leaving you with a sitter. Is that bad that it was only 28 hours after we met you? Anyway we went to dinner at the outback and like any professional parents we talked about our new baby the entire dinner.
This year we started celebrating Daddy's birthday a couple of days early. Daddy and I got tickets to go see the comedian Carrot Top. Remember, we saw him outside of the Luxor Hotel one day and got our picture taken with him. Our good friends the Ballantynes were kind enough to watch you so we could have a night out. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant then to the show. The show was really funny. We spent the entire 1 1/2 laughing. It felt good.

On Daddy's actual birthday, your daddy and I took the day off and we decided to capitalize on having a day off together during the week and took you to see Santa Clause for the first time. Last year was so busy that we never got a chance to take you. You were pretty nervous about seeing the big man in red. You had a death grip on me, I had to peal you off of me to sit on Santa's lap. You didn't cry...but you were definitely nervous. Now, as this was your first time seeing Santa, this was my first time taking a child to see Santa. So I was a bit confused on how the whole operation worked myself. I had these blissful images of me taking you up to Santa, Santa with a joyful voice would say "Why Hello, little feller, come sit on my lap!" and I would simply place you on Santa's lap. You would have a big smile on your face. Santa would be thrilled to see such a happy little boy and continue by asking "What do you want for Christmas little boy?" And you would talk with your eye's... since you can't tell him yet. We would snap the most adorable picture to cherish forever. Well, here is the reality of how it worked. I remember my mom telling me that Santa has lots of helpers around to help him see all the little boys and girls cause he simply can't do it all on his own. Well, let's just say that some helpers are better than others. This is how it went down...
I walked up to Santa holding you. I'm telling you all about Santa and what a nice happy man he is who brings us our presents. I start to hand you to Santa and he says "WAIT!"
What? Wait?
"Yeah - don't hand me the child until they are ready to take the picture!" Santa says
I'm thinking to myself, are you kidding? When is Max suppose to tell you what he wants for Christmas? This is not how I saw this.
Santa then says "OK, hand me your son" So I peal you off of me and sit you on Santa's lap. I start to turn around to walk out of picture shot when I hear a fearful Santa say "Take him back! Take him back! Take him back!"
What? Santa is panicking? How can this be - you have children sitting on your lap all day long! Then I thought - oh no! Did Max have an accident on Santa? What is the problem?
Santa says to me, "She is not ready to take the picture, I thought she was ready - but she's not!"
Are you kidding me? Santa would not allow you to sit on his lap for an extra couple of seconds before she was ready to take your picture! It was hilarious.
Finally - the picture lady was ready and I sat you down. Now - I was so concerned about getting you to smile, that I really didn't even look at what Santa was doing. Well, here it is... Your first picture with Santa!

Oh but the fun doesn't stop there. As soon as we were done with the picture Santa sets you down on your feet and let's go as if to say "there you go little feller" - and send you on your way!
I'm yelling "Wait! He doesn't walk yet!" running over to your aid. It was a close call. Santa says "How old is he?" Concerned that you are way behind for your age. "He just turned one!"
"Oh?!" So you look a little big for your age...

After our picture fun with Santa we headed to the food court for some lunch. Then off to the Movie. Your daddy choose to see the new Twilight Saga movie New Moon. I think he was being a team player! It was a good movie, you didn't fall right asleep, so the first 30 minutes or so was a bit painful pacing the foyer of the theater. Luckily their was only 4 other people in the theater and you weren't too loud. After the Movie we met up with Auntie Andrea and went to dinner at the Claim Jumper. After dinner we went to Opportunity Village, an outdoor Christmas light display. It was really fun, but really cold! It was a fun day, Daddy said he had a great time and really liked spending the day with his family. We love you Daddy! By the way - I hooked you up Max, Daddy got some money and a card from you.

Their is a train ride you can take there. We decided to wait until next year, as we were freezing at a walking pace, so we could hardly imagine trying to keep warm at "train pace"