The Easter Dress

I will be the first to admit that the meaning of Kalina's first Easter was lost in the folds of her beautiful princess dress. It couldn't be helped, she was adorable. It was a good thing we had church to go to so we could show her off.

[In my defense, I'll say that Kalina's too young to understand the Easter Bunny, let alone resurrection. ("So when does the giant bunny come out of the tomb?") On the other hand, she did a great job of keeping her pretty headband on her head.]

With the morning beginning chillier than I'd hoped, I knew the time had come for my little girl to suffer for fashion: I had neglected to buy tights to keep her legs warm. I put the fancy dress over her head and she bore the chill like a pro. For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, she rivaled her Halloween costume in resembling a flower, and I couldn't have been more pleased.

Our guests, Grandpa Hanks and Uncle Tom, arrived and joined us in snapping pictures like mad. Kalina tolerated it as only a true princess can: relishing the attention for a few minutes before growing annoyed by it and demanding to return to her previously scheduled playtime.

Fortunately, Grandpa had brought her an Easter basket as Mommy had let her down by ordering her a new (used) book instead, which hadn't arrived yet in the mail. We hid the large, bright yellow basket in the middle of the living room and sat Kalina about four feet from it. Still slightly distrustful of Uncle Tom, the girl found it about two minutes later after she'd finished giving him a dozen very concerned looks. She tore into it and then paraded it around the living room.

And then we were off to church! Kalina spent her time eating (to keep her quiet) and running around in circles behind all the seats, pulling Mommy along behind her. She was a benevolent little princess in the cry room during the sermon, sharing her toys with other babies.

After naptime (when, unfortunately, the dress's tenure came to an end), Kalina joined us for Easter dinner and sampled her first ham, as well as a Kalina-sized twice-baked potato and green beans before settling in on banana and oatmeal leftoever from breakfast.

She then watched as the adults hunted for all the plastic Easter eggs she and the cats had scattered around the house in the past couple weeks. Happy to have all but half an orange egg and half a blue egg returned to her, she led the cats in redistributing them for next year. We were just glad we hadn't given her real eggs.

A trip to the park and about two weeks later (in exhausted Mommy time), and it was finally time for bed. Kalina needed her princess beauty sleep and Mommy needed her sanity-preserving babyless evening.

Next year, perhaps, Kalina Princess will be able to say "Jesus loves me," but right now the best thing I could show her is that Mommy does. Hopefully she won't remember how cold her legs were in that dress, or that she wasn't given any chocolate...