Happy Easter

There were a lot of "firsts" for Mercer this week. He decorated an egg-shaped cookie. It didn't take long before he ate the cookie as well as a couple of others that he would run and grab as I was working on them. He tie-dyed a few Easter eggs. (I found a no-mess kit... which was no mess for the kids, but I got really dirty.) We didn't get any pictures of the hard-boiled egg dying because my neighbor, Courtney, and I were trying to do damage control as we were working on this activity (we were out-numbered by kids). Mercer wanted to help with the eggs just a little bit, but he didn't have much of an attention span for it.

Mercer ate his first chocolate bar and his first marshmallow peep this weekend. We've done a great job of holding him off of candy for the first 2 years of his life... but he knows all about it now! I'm hoping we can keep it away from him again / "detox" him from it. (Basically if we don't have it around -- which Todd & I don't -- then we'll hopefully get things back in check again.)

Mercer definitely got his fill of Easter egg hunts:
hunt #1: We went to a hunt last weekend that the young pastor from our church and his wife hosted at their house. Mercer got his first taste of a jelly bean and some sort of gummy candy too. He was clingy and afraid of the other kids at first, but then warmed up. Once he figured out that there was candy in the eggs, he took his bounty and ran and "hid" on a slide so he could take stock of what he had and could eat it. I guess he felt a little more secure here -- and didn't think I could come to take it away from him?

hunt #2: His daycare had an Easter Egg hunt. The teacher said he had a good time -- and -- yes, ate some candy while there. Hmmmm.....

hunts #3 - #12: Yes - there were 10 more hunts!! We hosted our neighborhood's 2nd annual Easter Egg hunt. Last year, 10 families hid eggs in their yards and kids would go from house to house looking for eggs on their own. This year, there were 10 families that hosted egg hunts again, but, the little kiddos in the 'hood went around from house-to-house as a group -- sort of like a "progressive" egg hunt. Here, he and his buddy, Jackson, are cruising together between hunts. On the first whistle, the kids 4 & under went; shortly after on the second whistle, the older kids went. Each house had a golden egg hidden there as well. Mercer (or Todd?) found one. It was a lot of fun to see them all hunt together. I was the host this year and had to "facilitate" each hunt, so Todd actually got to run around with Mercer. I would say that they both had a lot of fun.

The hunt in our back yard was the last egg hunt. Afterwards, the families stayed for egg-shaped cookies (that Mercer did not decorate) and lemonade.

I had to look up WHY there are bunnies and eggs at Easter. From what I could find in pagan tradition, rabbits represent fertility during spring renewal. Eggs were brought out on Easter after Lent & fasting - no meat or poultry or eggs for 40 days - one variation indicated that the eggs were dyed red in celebration of Christ's rising. Interesting!

This morning, we all went to church (see Mercer's new duds?) then came home and had lunch with some neighbors. And - it's officially spring... we planted the first foods in our raised bed garden...romaine and green leaf lettuce sprouts! Also, the trees are budding and the tulips are blooming. (I have NO CLUE why this picture absolutely will not rotate, but I've heard that I'm not on the blog enough. You'll just have to turn your head to the side.) We're SO glad to spend more time outdoors and finally shed this long long winter we've had. And - we're happy to be spending a lot more time outside to hang out in the front yard, by the pond, and at neighbors' houses.

On a side note - Mercer is doing a bunch of new things: he is proud of himself that he knows how to jump. He'll "show off" and hop around a lot. He now shrugs his shoulders now when he says "why?" or "where?" And he shouts "EWWW YUCK" at a lot of things including his diaper changes and anything that looks a little dirty. Aside from the terrible twos reported last week -there are definitely good things in between.