Today my almost 16 month old apparently said: "It's Christmas time" while at home with her Dad and Clara. She adds this to her recent repertoire of words that include: Blue, Yellow, Duck, Moo, and Hello. With Clara in full on Santa-Christmas-Fever mode, I am hardly surprised that Freya is jumping on the Christmas-enthusiasm train.
Flashback to a couple of weeks ago, when Freya and Clara met Santa. Their mutual enthusiasm for Santa vanished when presented with the Real Deal - smiles were replaced instantly with steely-eyed glares that seemed to say: "We'd like to see you try something, Santa-man. We can take you." I don't know if the sisters discussed their plan of attack beforehand but they clearly were borrowing from last year's intimidation strategy - Don't let Santa see you smile.
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| 2015 |
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| 2016 |
Clara isn't too big on posed photography. Take this case in point - picture day at school came and went. This is the photo I took of her before we went to said picture day.
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| Clara - candid, happy - cute. |
Just try to tell Clara to smile or do something specific in a photo. Good luck. Here are the photos I got back from picture day. First - the portrait. Same abstract background from my childhood. I would like to know who matted down Clara's hair before hand - maybe Clara? Who knows. And that smile - what a lovely smile - somewhere between - "You told me to smile - I'm smiling." and "I'm just pretending to like you."
And for the grand finale, Clara's class photo. Top row, center - just where her parents were always placed as the tallest kids in the class. It's nice to see some things never change. I present to you, Clara, not looking at the photographer with her eyes closed. My one consolation is at least she's not the only one. 4 year-olds, man.
So with that, kick back, relax, and enjoy this holiday season. I know my kids are.
