Thank You, Easter Bunny!

Jack is old enough that he is firmly entrenched in kid-dom and can actually understand holidays. Last Easter, that wasn't really the case. He saw the Easter Bunny, and he found the eggs that we hid - and by hid, I mean placed in plain sight in the living room. But I don't think he connected one with the other, nor did he consider either thing as part of a larger event.

But this time, he gets it.

He was excited to meet the Easter Bunny and spent a lot of time talking to him about plastic eggs with jelly beans in them. It was important to Jack that the eggs contain candy because "last year, I got stickers instead." Well, yeah - that's because last year I figured I could get away with not giving you a whole heap of sugar, so I enjoyed it while I could. Who would have guessed that, a year later, you'd remember that? Of course, I didn't say that, but that instead, the Easter Bunny must know that Jack is now a big boy, and therefore ready for candy and not just stickers. And that probably Santa talked to him about it and filled him in on Jack's changed status. All of this made perfect sense to Jack.

The Cub was also excited about finding the eggs. We talked a lot about where the eggs might be hidden. Jack loved hearing about where Steve and I found eggs when we were kids. (Steve: behind pillows on the couch, Me: in my shoes) He also repeatedly stressed that if there were Easter eggs hidden under the kitchen table, he would be able to break from our usual policy and crawl under to get them.

We dyed Easter eggs for the very first time this year. It was a fun and messy affair, especially since Jack wanted to make most of his eggs blue - the most finger staining dye is also his favorite color.

Jack also had a great time at the Easter egg hunt that we went to. I remember very well his first Easter, in which we went to the egg hunt in South Riding, held our four month old baby, and just watched the big kids. And that at the time, a two year old seemed ancient and huge. This year, Jack quickly and eagerly filled his basket. It's not like it was difficult; the word "hunt" is a misnomer. There is no hunting involved when the eggs are all spread across a football field and all you have to do is pick them up. But I'm not complaining, because there were Tootsie Rolls in there. Mmm, Tootsie Rolls!

Easter morning was even more fun. The eggs were, in fact, hidden. Jack was excited that the Easter Bunny was using his old hiding places of behind the pillows and in the shoes. And he was, indeed authorized to go under the table. Jack was especially excited to find his Easter basket. His favorite gift was a DVD of Enchanted. He pulled it out of the basket, gasped, and said, "I cannot believe I got this today!"

The other reason having a kid is fun? No way is he going to be able to eat all of those jelly beans himself.