The Santa Quandary...and Christmas Joys

Quandary. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word as:

"a state of perplexity or doubt"

Now put Santa in the definition, and you probably understand my dilemma. Let me take you back 30 or so years ago. My parents never told us that Santa was real (or the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy etc...). We just had fun with Santa. We went to sit on his lap at the mall. Got presents from Santa. We generally, enjoyed the concept of a Santa Claus, but I never thought that he shimmied down our non-existent fire place, ate the cookies that we left for him, or magically brought us our gifts. Our gifts appeared under our Christmas tree, wrapped by mom, about a week before Christmas. Our presents would start to appear and my brother and I would just sit and stare at our mysterious, unopened gifts. Occasionally, one of us would pick at the corner of our package to try and guess what it might be by the color of the box...always ready to blame the cat for the inconvenient rip that appeared. However, even though the presents appeared before Christmas, specially marked presents always managed to appear on Christmas morning marked "To Sarah, From Santa..." AKA "from Dad."

Now, as I grew up and realized that their were kids out there who actually BELIEVED that Santa was real, I quickly became confused. I vividly remember my neighbor who babysat us making up an untrue-grandiose story to her daughter about Santa, because, I, the unbeliever, commented that Santa wasn't real. I had strong feelings back then of being confused and angry that Diane would lie to her daughter?!? I didn't understand the "mystique" of Santa, but I did know the fun of the concept of Santa.

So, a couple of weeks ago I was driving with my neighbor's niece and nephew (ages 12 & 13) and I decided to ask them about what they thought. They said that they believed in Santa until they were about 9 & 10!! I asked them if they were disappointed or felt lied to when they found out that Santa wasn't real, and they said they didn't think so. I got the hint that they sort of did, but didn't want to admit it. I asked them why I should tell Elle that Santa is real, and they said, "so that Elle has something to look forward to." Now I tell you, "I certainly looked forward to Christmas. Are you kidding, all of those presents under the tree!!!"

I look at Elle and part of me wants to go along with the "norm," but a bigger part of me dreads all of the inevitable questions and lies I would have to make up in response....I had decided as I child that I would not lie to my kids. I think that kids need to learn the difference between make believe and real. That doesn't mean that you still do not have FUN with make believe. I want her to know that Santa is make believe, but Jesus birth was REAL! Some people teach that the Bible was just a book of made up stories...those were real, Cinderella was make believe. I want Elle to love God, but have fun with make believe. Am I philosophising way...

I interrupt this blog with a visit to the 1 1/2 year old who has
the post Christmas toy, have to go to sleep while all of my
new toys are lying there, wanting to be played with,
and I am in my crib fighting sleep...BLUES...

...too much? Oh well, I guess that I have 364 days left until next Christmas, where hopefully I will have been able to make peace with my childhood confusion, and have decided what to say to Elle about the man in the red suit.

(Just to be clear, we have a disagreement in the house. After Bernhard proof read my blog, he informed that that he was not disappointed that he had believed in Santa, and that I should indeed tell her that Santa is real...)

Yes, of course we took her to see Santa...Breakfast with Santa :-)

A few pics of Elle and her wonderful Christmas treasures...

Elle sitting at her new table, with her new dishes, and her new BIG BIRD!!!

The one and only BIG BIRD

Opening up her organic cotton Pixie doll from her Grandpa :-)

Elle on her new tricycle. She was so excited, she tried to ride it
before the seat or handle bars were on it.

A Fall Beauty :-0

My halloween flower :-)

The Dracula attacks the dear flower during dinner...she feeds Dracula!

The flower clings to her baby for dear life at a Halloween party

TRICK OR TREATING at our neighbor's house

Looking at pictures with Papa

Helping Grandma pick up leaves

Her annual leaf photo shoot :-0
~~~Smile~~~

Happy Fall...Now, onto winter...

My first baby

So, I'm sure many of you have pets. Some of these are either just run of the mill animals who may live primarily outside or are self-sufficient, and are definitely 2nd rung; OR they are your "first" babies, who sleep in your beds, are called "baby," travel with you, get first rate medical care (possibly better than your own), and eat gourmet meals... the list embarrassingly goes on... So, it goes without saying that when I first became prego, I was concerned with how Bailey would take it :) Yes, indeed, I was concerned about our dear, orange Maine Coon cat Sibelius (Bailey for short). To make a long story short....he became aggressive....started peeing in house....called in a behaviorist (didn't work btw).... Discovered pheromones related to prego hormones....Vet. said "let him outside. He can survive without claws"....it worked!!! Phewwww!! Well, there is actually more to be said about Bailey. After baby, cat did great, we moved, cat did not do great. Started peeing....now, he is taking phenylbarbitol....cat is doing great again. Pheww, again!! What we don't do for our "first babies." My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first in November. Their "first baby," Lola, (a German Shorthair) is in for a big surprise!

Ok, now that the cat Hx (history, that is) has been duly explained. Let me show my dire excitement!
They have become friends (well, sort of anyways)!!! This morning Elle and I were reading books on the couch, when Bailey desperately wanted love too. Sooooo, he jumped up and took his spot on my lap. Elle giggled with glee and while he purred and kneaded my chest, she leaned over and with her full weight (a whole 20.15 lbs) hugged him. He didn't flinch. He just purred on. She proceeded to pet him (gently I might add) and giggle at him. He purred on. What a beautiful morning.

All is well in the Scully world. Currently Bailey is outside ruffing up the local wildlife, without claws. Yeah for animals being able to be outside.

The great popsicle slaughter!!!

It was mightily devoured, leaving blood and a stick as the reminder of the crime...

Just have to share

Elle tickling herself "gicka, gicka"

Nothing to long or exciting to post about, just my continued awe at Elle's learning. Having worked with children with disabilities for so long and picking apart skills and writing goals, I am continually amazed to see Elle learning things that I work on with pre-schoolers and elementary aged kids. A couple of things that make me smile daily are:

1) Grandma brought flowers over to our house recently and taught Elle how to "smell/sniff" the flowers. Now Elle just has to see pictures of flowers and she wrinkles up her little nose and begins sniffing. Here at camp there are lots of flowers and lots of people paying attention to her. So, she frequently points out the flowers to people and "sniffs!!" It is beyond cute :-)

2) I roared awhile back to her book that had lions, tigers, bears...oh, my.... and leopards etc. Today in the store she was roaring for her "new friend" (the lady working at the store) and then proceeded to pick up the leopard slippers! Wow, talk about generalization of knowledge/skills!!!!

3) She has become to most social little girl. EVERYONE at camp loves to pay attention to her. She is the complete center of attention. What are we going to do once we are home and its just us and the cat??????!?! Anyone walking by her receives a sweet little "hiiii," and if you don't hear it she will continue with a "Ahhhhhhhhhghhgh" followed by a wave and the sweet little "hi" repeated. So yesterday we drove up to camp and Elle says "hiiiii" and begins waving at camp, no one in site yet.

Actually, when we arrived to camp she was shy of everyone and hid her face between my legs. As she began to feel comfortable, she stopped hiding and everyone was her friend. So, when someone new came to camp, I thought that she would be their friend too, but, she went back to hiding. It made me realize that she really has strong facial recognition skills. Her friends are really people she recognizes and not just anyone. Funny thing, she mainly hides from men, not usually women :-)

4) Learning is such an amazement to me. We are doing sign language with her and she has finally caught on. Just after we ate lunch today she was playing and then began whining. She left the toys and walked over to me while signing "night, night." I picked her up and put her in bed. Simple as that. Someone at camp said the verdict isn't out whether sign language will slow down speech acquisition, so they didn't do sign with their kids. My correlation is that sign language is like crawling. No one crawls as an adult, eventually everyone learns to walk unless they have a true disability. I would rather that Elle have a communication method before her oral motor skills are developed then just throwing herself on the floor and crying because she is exhausted or because I don't know what she wants.