Natural Bridges

I previously wrote a short post about Jakey’s newfound love of Santa.  We have these three carved wooden figures that I believe are supposed to be the three wise men, but have white beards and are therefore all known as “Santa.”  We couldn’t pack them up with the rest of the Christmas decorations because every morning, Jake likes to clutch them in his little hands on the ride to school.  Sometimes at night, we feed his baba to Santa.

Today we went to Amelia’s fourth birthday party and then on a nice walk through Natural Bridges to see the monarch butterflies.  There weren’t many butterflies, but we heard a lot of froggies, chased a bumble bee, and twirled around, pretending to “fly.”

I was carrying Jakey down the nice wooden boardwalk they’ve built (when I was little it was an eroding beach trail stampeded by hundreds of school children) when he says, “Santa!”  I mindlessly repeat, quite clearly, “Where’s Santa?” as he passes us.  I come to my senses and turn just in time to see a rotund old man, with a bushy white beard, wearing a red tye-died t-shirt.  I nearly peed my pants as I recounted the story to James.  Jakey laughed, too, at our little joke, “Funny Daddy, funny.”

Later, on our nature walk, we saw three deer running through a field and then down the road in front of us.  “Look Jakey, deer!  How special.”

“Santa!”

And his reindeer.