Baby steps to Santa Clause

So a while back Wes, Oakley, and I were shopping at Costco and we stopped in the toy section to look at the toys. All of a sudden, Oakley looked up and saw a big train table with wooden tracks on it that had been put together as a display. He stared at it for a minute and then said "Oakley needs that at his house." Wes and I laughed. We told him maybe he could ask Santa to bring him one for Christmas. We weren't sure that he understood, but he was ok with that.

Well, last week we had the chance to go visit Santa at the Jet blue offices. Our aunt Margo works there and was taking pictures of Santa with anyone who brought a can of food for their food drive. I took Oakley and he was really good waiting in line to talk to Santa. Then when it was finally his turn I held his hand and started walking towards Santa and he started flipping out. He cried and tried to run away and did not want to go anywhere near Santa or Mrs. Clause. (Note this picture from two years ago. Nothing has changed)
I took Oakley off to the side and calmed him down and talked to him as other kids took their turns on Santa's lap. I told him Santa was nice and would give him a treat, he just had to go tell Santa what he wanted, a train table. Finally, after about 15 minutes of watching the other kids he got enough courage to walk up to Santa and say "I want a train table" then he ran back to me. I made him go back and get a candy cane from Santa and when he did Margo snapped these shots.

So I guess things have changed from two years ago. Oakley was so brave. Baby steps, right? Maybe next year he'll sit on his lap.

As we were leaving the building Oakley started crying because he thought that he got the train table right then. I had to explain that Santa had to go back to the North Pole and build the train table and that he'd bring it on Christmas, as long as Oakley was a good boy. He was ok with that
and I think he's sort of getting the idea of Santa Clause, and Christmas.