Finding Nemo

It has been a pain in the ass to blog lately. Every other time I pick up the laptop and try to log on, I cannot. There is something wrong with our router or something and I need to go upstairs and unplug and then wait and then plug in some cables and I am just too lazy. Grrr...

But it's working now so here I am! We took the kids to the mall today to sit on Santa's lap. And I waited in line for two hours. Insane, I know. Jonathan took the kids around the mall while I waited. And he brought me a mocha from Starbucks that was almost as tall as I am.

I was very anxious to see how the Lion would handle Santa, since he cried last year:

and since he was pretty whiny and clingy when he and Blue and Daddy joined me for the very last part of the wait, but he sat there on Santa's lap and seemed pretty calm. And then when Blue climbed down from Santa's lap, the Lion slid down and stood in front of Santa, leaning back onto the man's legs, just shooting the breeze. So that was pretty cute.

Jonathan is the best dad ever. Seriously.

I'll tell you why.

A few months ago, we were shopping at the Castlerock Outlets and we wandered into a toy store. This place had some dusty old toy cameras by the registers and one of these was a Finding Nemo camera. Lion played with it while we were in the store but then we put the camera back into the bin by the register and left without it.

About a month ago, when asking the Lion what he wanted for Christmas, he mentioned a "Nemo camyra." It took Jonathan and I a while to even figure out where he had seen a Nemo camera since the movie came out years ago. And then we remembered. In the toy store at the outlet mall that is over 45 minutes away from our new house.

So I have been waiting for Lion to forget all about the Nemo camera. And getting him every other thing he mentions wanting Santa to bring. Like Thomas the Train. And a guitar.  But cringing every time he mentions a "Nemo camyra."

So what does he tell Santa in the mall today? "I want a Thomas the Train and a Nemo camyra." So after the photo op, we came home and I made the kids some lunch and Jonathan got back into the car and drove all the way to the Castlerock Outlets to find a Nemo camera. And the cashier at the toy store helped him look and they found the last one at the bottom of a bin.


I cannot wait to see Lion's little face when he gets his Nemo camera. And he had better be appropriately wowed. But even if he isn't, I sure am. I just love my Jonathan so much. After all the joking that we were going to tell Lion the "Nemo camyra" must have fallen out of Santa's sleigh, or that we should just buy some crappy little camera and put some Nemo stickers on it, he drove for an hour in Christmas traffic to pick up a $5 camera and then drive all the way back. The Lion had better not lose this camera. He is bringing it to college with him.