Tales from the Crib

I Betcha

My employer, Metroland North Media, has just launched a Scary Santa Memories photo contest for Simcoe County residents. They want people to send in their funny ‘sitting on Santa’s lap’ pictures where the kids are crying in terror.

It got me to thinking about what will happen when I take my son to get his Santa picture this year. Do you want to bet that he cries? I’m convinced it’ll happen.

Last year’s picture was pretty good. I went in November, when he was only five months old and he didn’t really care too much about whose lap he was sitting on.

I carefully picked out his outfit. Even with his fine hair standing up, he still looked spiffy. It’s now been scrapbooked, to be enjoyed for years to come.

But, while we’re on the topic of Santa pictures, there’s actually a funny family story that goes along with last year’s picture.

My sister-in-law told me to get it done at the Kozlov Centre because it’s where both Santa and Mrs. Claus pose for a picture.

So I did, as did she.

The trouble came when my nephew saw Nolan’s picture, and was confused.

“That’s not Mrs. Santa,” he said with authority. “Mommy, who is that?”

I didn’t have a quick answer, but like a pro and without hesitation, my sister-in-law said matter-of-factly, “that’s Santa’s mom.”

I felt so sorry for the poor woman who volunteered her time to pose with children. She’s now been aged a few decades just to please my nephew.

I should be thankful that it was the same Santa posing that day.

Hopefully, I get just as lucky this year – and I’ll let you know if I win my own bet.

Our Little Dirt Devil

Christmas came early in the Ramsay household, as friends of ours gave my son a hand-me-down toy vacuum recently.

Now a week into this new addition, Nolan still gets excited when he sees it.

It is somewhat strange that he enjoys the vacuum as a toy. After all, whenever we’ve had to use the real vacuum to clean the house, he’s always been nervous of it.

This new toy came about while visiting with friends of ours. Nolan actually grabbed the main part of their real vacuum to play with, when my friend suddenly remembered her kid version. She searched through her toy box to find the little Dirt Devil model.

It’s actually really neat. It comes with a detachable hose and a dust buster feature that makes it quite a versatile toy. It broke just before we got it home, so it’s already got some duct tape on it, but Nolan doesn’t mind.

Add to the fact that we installed a few batteries, to give it an annoying buzzing sound, and it certainly gets a lot of use in our household. Our own vacuum hose attachment even fits on the end of his play hose, and Nolan has been mimicking daddy’s cleaning all week.

I knew it was a hit when, that first morning, the groggy little mister diverted his eyes towards the vacuum instead of his bottle. It almost seemed that he sucked back the bottle faster in order to get to vacuuming.

I watched as he moved a basket full of books out from under a side table to vacuum, just like daddy does. He then put the attachment on the end of the hose and proceeded to wave it on the first few steps of our staircase, just like daddy does.

Little did I realize our own “dirt devil” was paying such close attention when my husband cleans. If only it had more powerful suction, so that he could be responsible for cleaning up all of his fluff and crumbs that land on the floor.

Who do you look like?

Whenever a baby is born, the first thing relatives do is have a look at the wee one to judge which side of the family he or she resembles most.

It’s a fun way for a parent to learn what body parts stand out the most themselves, really.

In our case, Nolan definitely came with his dad’s blue eyes and “receeding” hairline, which garnered many jokes. The little baby was also blessed with mom’s long toes and fingers, which I can remember poked out of his swaddling blanket at every opportunity.

As he’s grown, he’s taken on his own appearance – and now has a full head of hair.

Well, at a recent family dinner, that topic came up once again, as all eyes focused on our first-born.

“I think he looks like you,” said my husband’s cousin, commenting on his hair and face.

While I took pride in that, I disagreed with her. “He looks like his dad did as a baby,” is what I replied.

We had just looked through my husband’s baby album, and sure enough, the same smiles and shaggy hair are visible. There might be a bit of my family genetics in there somewhere, but the Ramsay genes are quite dominant.

Now I have to explain that while she was making these comments, we had just brought Nolan to the table to start eating dinner. That night it was mashed potatoes, cooked carrots and a bun.

“Don’tcha think he looks like you?” she said, just as Nolan started shoving a fistful of potatoes into his mouth. “Especially now.”

Everyone laughed at the perfect timing of the situation.

Thanks. That’s great.

Poor child, but at least he does take after his mom with a healthy appetite.