Sansey Trilogy and Trail of Lights

Sebby and I have had the chance to check out a plethora of Sanseys (Seb's way of saying Santa) this holiday season. These Santa experiences might be to blame for his recent cough. I'll take the trade off! Nothing can stop me from getting these treasured photos!  Seb's first Sansey experience occurred right in front of our house. Our neighbors to the left, Corey and Jimmy have a life sized Sansey that Seb is absolutely obsessed with. Each day he asks to "touch, touch" but I remind him that he's not our Sansey and we can look but not touch.

I watched Leo and Carla the evening after the Gingerbread House Party of 2012 while both sets of parents went out for a date. I survived and it really went well! The kids all sat at the kid table together eating their pizzas and enjoying some fruit juice. We hung out outside and even said hello to Sansey. No one had a poopy (Thank the baby Jesus!) and there was no hitting, scratching or toy snatching. I think I can do this again!

After that Sunday, it's been a whirlwind of Sansey experiences. First, daddy, Seb and I caught the last hour of the Lighting of the Tree at The Triangle. He was super excited to sit on Sansey's lap. We were outside and there was quite a line but nothing stopped Seb from getting to sit on Santa's lap!

Closed eyes again! Santa looks like a creep, don't want to look!

Then it was off to Highland Mall for a Santa story time.  Sebby was not the least bit interested in the story!!! There was NO Santa appearance during the story time so we quickly jumped ship and walked around the desolate mall. This place was D-E-A-D! Really, it was rather sad. This mall is known for its rather interesting establishments and places I haven't ever heard of like El Palacio de Quinceanera or Hair 4 Daze. I think there's a dollar store in there as well. It's probably a good thing that ACC is snatching this place up now before it completely goes down the crapper. Phew! What an experience!  We did manage to find a train track but it was not in operation so Seb decided to pretend he was the conductor and chooo chooo his way around each caboose. 

Huh?!

Go go Sebby!

Then we found a little .25 cent train that moves when you put your money in it. I was able to scrounge enough money to get this thing moving but the minute it did, Seb screamed, NO OFF NO OFF and so that was the end of that!  

Immediately after that, I saw black Santa walking past us. Seb screamed, Sansey, Sansey. So, I thought, great! We'll take a pic. As I managed to get close to the Santa photo booth Seb began to scream and cling to me with his man hands. I couldn't pry him off. I had all intentions to get a screaming Seb on Santa's lap but no dice. This kid was NOT letting go of me! So we left. With no pic....so onto the next story time......

Voila! Enter Northwest Rec Center.  Seb was SOOOO excited when we were waiting on Sansey. I kept telling him all morning that he was going to meet him and get to sit on his lap. He kept screaming, Sansey, yeeeeeeah!!!

"Sansey yeaaaaah"

Examining my cookie

I'm excited!

Waiting in line with Niva and Mr. Snowman and some random dude

So, I thought for sure he would be thrilled to sit in his lap. After story time and some cookies and juice, Sansey busted through the doors. Again, Sebby screamed and jumped for joy. Yeah, Sansey! Yeah! We waited in line for about 10 minutes. We got close....but as you can see, sitting on Sansey's lap was the last thing my child wanted to do:

Ahhhhhhh!  Noooooo!

Oh! I had so much fun getting this shot! Blackmail for life!

And lastly, we managed to walk the 2012 Trail of Lights. It's been on hiatus for the past few years so we were thrilled to hear it's made a come back. Well, so were the other 700,000 people that live in Austin. It was paaaacked. However, we got there early enough to get a decent pic with another Sansey. This time Seb was all smiles. My boy learns so fast!  I'm proud of you! The Trail of Lights was a blast! Another Maki Tradition is born!

I really hope this Santa isn't a creep...look at my child's shirt! It's hiked up! What the what?!

In other news, Seb continues to enjoy closing his eyes for the camera. It's funny that I remember doing the same exact thing as a child too! I remember my mom constantly telling me to stop squinting.  I wonder whether that's some kind of gene that gets passed down. Here are some pics:

Seb has begun learning his ABC's and 1, 2, 3's. I think its rather funny that he enjoys reciting the spanish version of his 1,2,3's more than English (he says each number after I tell him to). He literally says each one of them in Spanish but refuses to say the number one in English. Why I wonder??!?! 

Remember the work bench daddy made for him? Well, Seb screwed in two screws ALL BY HIMSELF without any help from daddy or me. I'm serious! This child picked up a screw, then the screwdriver and screwed it in. Wow! The hand-eye coordination boggles my mind! He then looked up with a smile and screamed, DRILL BIT! What? Drill bit?! I didn't even know those two words went together until I was well into my 20's. It's amazing to me that he knows most of the names of his tools. I include them here: ammer (hammer), piers (pliers), srew (screw), drill, nail, saw dust, saw, wrench, screwdriver and sander. He's talking more and more each day. He's stringing two words together: I did it, hold it, Hi Sansey and No more. Ha! Of course he would know that one.  His mind is expanding so much everyday. It's sooo much fun to watch and I can't wait to hold a real conversation with him some day!