An adorable baby is getting a ton of attention after he did a cute sleeping photo shoot with a quick-thinking mall Santa.
Little Zeke Walters and his family headed to the mall near their home in Evansville, Indiana, last week to take his first photos with Santa, his dad, Donnie, told BuzzFeed News.
But as they were standing in line, the 6-month-old couldn't handle the excitement and passed out. "My son just gave the biggest yawn and crashed his head on my shoulder,” Walters said.
Walters said the family figured they would just walk around the mall until Zeke woke up, but Santa had another idea. "[He said,] 'Don’t wake your child; we got the perfect shot,'” Walters said.
Santa placed Zeke on his side, and the baby continued to snooze as Walters and his family took the hilariously adorable shots. 🎅👶💤
"We thought it was cute, and we shared it and loved it," Walters said of the photo shoot.
After Zeke was born, Walters set up a page on Facebook called Donnie's Daddy Daycare to share baby photos with friends and family. So, on Thursday he shared the Santa photos on his page.
The photos soon spread like wildfire on Facebook, and have been shared nearly 200,000 times. Other people from the community began to comment that this mall Santa has done this before and is popular in the area.
Walter said he never expected to get so much attention for his photos, but he is glad to share his experience as a stay-at-home dad with others.
He said his page has grown from less than 300 fans to more than 9,000, and he hopes to show other dads through his page how rewarding staying home with your child can be.
"I kind of hope to be an inspiration for other fathers to play a big role in their child's life," he said.