Hartley is still at an age where she definitely doesn't "get" the Easter bunny coming and bringing her a basket of goodies yet. I'm thinking each holiday after this one it will start to click a little more.
As awful as it makes me sound, I missed her Easter morning expression when she got to see her gifts. The night before Easter I was up from 1:30-5:30 and slept in to a whopping 7:30, just long enough to miss the basket time. I'm told she was pretty excited though!
The truth is we hardly bought Hartley anything for her birthday (a puzzle and a small little people set), and we really just bought her one big gift (a bunny rocker) for Christmas. So as Easter approached we both were having the itch to buy her specific toys that were bigger than traditional Easter gifts. So we went for it. Brian bought her a little tikes basketball hoop, and I bought her an easel with a magnetic white board and chalkboard. The room we once called a family room is now a full on playroom. As my mom would say when she had small children, "my interior decorator is fisher price". I swore I'd never let that happen but I kind of love it actually.
After Hartley's morning nap, we went to my parents' house for brunch. My mom outdid herself this year. I swear that woman gives Martha Stewart a run for her money. It was heaven for a pregnant woman. I'm pretty sure my favorites were her egg & sausage casserole, cheesy "funeral" potato casserole, monkey bread and strawberry fields salad.
After eating we went outside to "hunt eggs". Basically we all went to the backyard so Hartley could run around picking up empty eggs. And my envy over my parents' backyard grew exponentially. It's completely perfect for Hartley who just loves to cover as much ground as possible. She could toddle all over that yard all day, which meant Brian and I actually got to kick back. Normally taking her places means chasing after her to make she she avoids scary furniture and uncovered outlets. An acre of grass for the win! She also got to chase the dogs, which is totally hilarious to her and pretty funny to watch.
My parents also installed a baby swing under their back deck so she totally got a kick out of that. It's so much nicer than the ones at the neighborhood playground so she was probably feeling like the princess of the day. They got her a cabbage patch doll and stroller for Easter so she can "practice" having a baby around. She slammed into into the floor a couple times so I'm sure she's going to be a natural ;)
Honestly, I say it was my favorite holiday because it was Hartley's favorite holiday. Watching her get to have a fun day totally in her element was so nice. And I'll selfishly admit, her getting to be outside and have tons of space to roam really makes my job insanely easy. It was like an Easter gift all around.
At the end, even Hartley was yawning. And since my dad was laying on the grass (and Hartley is over the moon about him), he made the perfect piece of lawn furniture for her to climb up on for a little rest.
When we got home, of course the afternoon nap was off the table. The party couldn't stop! So we took her to a soccer field next to our house and let her run free. We thought ahead to being balls for her to kick around, and I swear she dribbled (and not just talking about the dribbling drool) for the first time. Side note: if you have a toddler who likes to cover area and you don't have a yard - soccer fields are amazing.
By the end of the day, we were all insanely exhausted. Of course yours truly is getting sick (a sore throat and sneezing crept in Easter night). But my last time being sick was my birthday last year so I've had a good run. My sore throat and I were up at 4:30 am, hence the quick turnaround on an Easter blog.
And today, as the one woman show I am, won't be as much fun for Hartley as it was yesterday but at least we have Easter goodies laying around for some Monday fun! Hope everyone else had a nice Easter, too. Hope your bellies got filled with good eats and candy and you got to enjoy that amazing sunshine!
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