I love this time of year! Maybe it’s the cold dreary months of being cooped up indoors with two exuberant toddler boys, or being able to run out the door without layering us all up, but as soon as that temperature gets above 50 degrees, I’m ecstatic. And Easter is just a joyful, fun holiday at our house.
I’m a sucker for all the bunnies and chicks and baskets of eggs. I color the boys’ pancakes, dye eggs and hop around with our homemade bunny ears, but I’m learning that it’s challenging doing some of the traditional activities with little ones.
Take egg dying for instance. Whoa, toddlers are no good at egg dying. One-year-old Luke kept trying to eat the entire egg, shell and all. James kept trying to crack the egg on the cup of dye — I guess that’s what I get for having him help me cook. It took forever to get across the concept of just putting the egg into the cup of dye. A couple splashes and cracked eggs later, we successfully colored some eggs.
“Now what?” asks James. I explain that we get to admire them and put them in our Easter baskets later on. That apparently wasn’t appealing to him, so he proceeded to crack, peel, and eat his. Oh well, at least I got him to eat something healthy. Thank goodness for Pinterest and the plethora of Easter crafts, other than egg dyeing, you can find there!
Then there’s the egg hunts. Every year we host a party for our friends and their little ones. There are crafts and a big egg hunt in our backyard. It was so adorable the first year we did it, with the little ones toddling around, clutching their large baskets and getting so excited over finding just one egg in the grass. The hunt has grown as our families have grown, and this year we had about a dozen toddlers tearing around the yard.
I watched in amazement as James stopped at the very first egg he found, sat down and proceeded to open it and inspect everything inside. After opening and eating the chocolate goodie, he slowly got back up and went to the next egg and sat down to repeat the process. He found a whopping total of six eggs. Other kids baskets were overflowing with eggs, while my child was perfectly content with his small collection. This was Luke’s first year participating, and he adorably lit up as he saw each egg and would run to scoop it up. That lasted for about 3 minutes, and then he ditched his basket and ran off to play with sand toys.
Call me old fashioned, or maybe overly competitive, but I seriously need to work on these boys’ egg hunt skills before next year.
Click here to read more Mommy Daze.
Mandy Watts is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Crownsville with her husband, Justin, who runs their family business, and their two sons, 3-year-old James and 1-year-old Luke.
