Ham and eggs

Today was a fun day for Kalina. In fact, the shallow side of the Easter holiday seems to have been made for the girl. Lambs, bunnies, chicks, ducklings and eggs--Kalina was in her sweet little version of Heaven.

We kicked off the holiday yesterday by dying eggs with Aunt Nancy. Kalina, who loves anything having to do with eggs (except, often, eating them), excitedly assumed her place at the table in her booster seat while Aunt Nancy and I got everything ready to go. "Eyah!" Kalina said happily, over and over. Yes, "egg" is a 2-syllable word in our house (as is "trash" and "more," to which somehow an "n" is also added after the "m").

We had thought some things through, but not others, and once the initial thrill of seeing white eggs magically turn various shades of blue, pink and yellow had worn off, and Kalina learned that we weren't comfortable with letting her hold eggs nor drink the dye, she was ready to be done. Aunt Nancy and I contentedly finished the job.

Easter Eve presented me with the joy of putting together Kalina's Easter basket and hiding it. But what do you put in a 21-month-old's Easter basket? A giant chocolate bunny? A couple of live baby chicks? A pony? All were tempting ideas, but I kept it simple, with a couple cheap-but-quality toys and books this year, as well as a toy carrot I finished for her far past my bedtime last night. I just can't bring myself to feed my little girl candy (yet).

As predicted, Kalina's favorite part of the Easter basket was the basket itself, which will soon find a use in training her to be the best flower girl there ever was at her Aunt Laura's upcoming wedding (stay tuned in June for that post, which my fingers are already itching to write!).

I hid the basket in the place Kalina hides, just for fun, after every meal: behind the dining room curtain.

The morning dawned and the time came to explain to Kalina that downstairs a basket filled with toys and good things was hiding, waiting for her to find it. "What? A basket? Full of fun stuff? For me? Just like that? Downstairs? Well let's go!" She was all smiles as her posse of Daddy, Lamby and Mountain Lion accompanied us down the steps.

We had to remind Kalina several times that we were looking for a basket as she got distracted by other things, but it took a very appropriate amount of time for her to find it, dismantle it and shoo the nosy cats away from it.

One princess dress (garage sale! $3! not ashamed to admit it!) later and we were off to church, where we bounced along to celebratory songs about the fact that Jesus is risen (unfortunately not as exciting to a toddler as the palm branches we all got to wave last week) and a kind stranger in the cry room gave Kalina a blue bear to play with and then let her keep it, despite the fact that Kalina of her own accord handed it back to her when she had to leave the room. A proud mommy rewarded Kalina's politeness with hugs and kisses (not to mention the blue bear).

And then to the destination Kalina was admittedly most excited about: Grandpa's house! We hurried out of our nice clothes (after a few pictures) and sought a dozen Easter eggs Aunt Nancy had hidden around the yard.

Which went something like this:

"Kalina, we're going outside to find Easter eggs!"
"But I'm playing with my wagon!"
"But there are Easter eggs!"
"Fine, but I'm bringing my wagon with me."
"Kalina, can you find the Easter eggs out here?"
"Only if I can tow my wagon behind me and carry some rocks, too."
"Kalina, are there any Easter eggs over here somewhere?" (standing directly beside an egg in plain view)
"Maybe."
"Kalina, why don't you look in this bush for an Easter egg?"
"Wow, cool, guys, there's a colored egg in this bush! Good thing I have my wagon to put it in!"

And from then on, it was a very easy sell. Kalina eventually caught on to the idea as a whole, and as long as the eggs were "hidden" within plain sight and she didn't get too distracted, she would seek them out. The green one was the clear favorite--only the truly special were allowed to hold it. Would she trade it to Uncle Tom for a yellow and orange egg? Only for a split second, at which point she found a stick in the yard to trade to Uncle Tom for her green egg back. He took the bait and ended up with no eggs whatsoever. Yup, Kalina can play his games. And beat him.

Daddy was busy at this time, too. He found: a couple small lizards (including one he caught and carried around for a while, trying with only marginal luck to pull Kalina away from the third Easter egg hunt of the day), a tree frog, a giant woolly bear caterpillar and at least five four-leaf clovers.

Dinner was also a success, and especially the ham, which Kalina wolfed down more of than Grandpa did if you calculate it according to their size. As you would guess, she was also a fan of deviled eggs. "Eyah!" she exclaimed, for the umpteenth time today.

Fortunately, the holiday isn't quite over. We will undoubtedly be holding Easter egg hunts for weeks to come, and eating ham for days.