Santa Train

Today we spent an afternoon on the Hocking Valley Scenic Railroad's Santa Train. I was a little worried for Nico because he is so far inexplicably frightened of Santa this year. He has never, ever exhibited any anxiety about costumed characters, so it was a bit of a shock when he hid behind Grandma's legs on a recent visit to see Santa while staying in London. Rocco, who played the part of the classic terrified, screaming baby during a visit with Santa last year, climbed right up onto his leg this year and rattled off all of the different types of trucks he wants for Christmas. Nico and I talked about Santa after that, and he seemed ready to try to see him again on the train. I figured the episode in London was a fluke, that he'd just had an "off" day.

Here is Rocco's reaction to seeing Santa enter the back of our train car...




Nico, on the other hand, went catatonic. He avoided eye contact with Santa at all cost and his body just froze. Scared stiff, I guess you could say. If you look at the photo below closely, you'll notice that Nico's body is essentially in the same position as it was when he was on Mark's lap. Mark basically just lifted his frozen little body up to Santa, pushing the poor kid's face right into that beard. Nico never moved a muscle. It was hilarious.