hippity hop

The Easter Bunny has been making tracks in our household, and we're getting very excited about celebrating the holiday!  Given that last year's Easter was nothing but an all-day scream-a-thon by poor baby Caroline, we are thrilled to be making plans for a more festive celebration this year. I'm headed to Charleston next week for a mommy-vacation, so I needed to get all our Easter preparations completed this week. I've been slowly picking up items for her Easter basket the last few weeks, and it's now all assembled and sitting on our mantle where I can enjoy the seasonal decor. Included in the goodies: sidewalk chalk, bubbles, new dinnerware, a floppy hot pink bunny (all found in the dollar section of Tar-jay; Love it!), her very first piece of chocolate, a girly toy car, and a Care Bear! 

Call me crazy but I don't recall Care Bears costing an arm and a leg back when I was a kid in the '80's. I do believe they were reasonably priced, with the intention of luring children into collecting all 7548979 of them. Apparently that is not the marketing strategy anymore. Little buggers were selling for $22 at Babies R Us!  (including a care bear tv show on dvd, which we will not be needing.) Luckily I had 2 coupons and got it for $9, but sheesh. The cherished memories of my youth now come with a hefty price tag apparently.

which one is broke-the-bank bear?

We made the obligatory trip to the mall for the annual photo with the Easter Bunny. Since last year's photo was such a smashing success (with her only at 6 weeks old!), I was nervous that Caroline would be less than enthusiastic about climbing into the paws of a giant rabbit this year. 

I must confess, a small part of me wouldn't have been terribly disappointed if she burst into hysterics. The kids-screaming-at-Easter-Bunny photos always crack me up. But apparently rabbits in all shapes and forms (and sizes) are ok in Caroline's book. She happily perched on his lap and smiled away. There were so many good ones, the technician and I had a detailed discussion on the pros and cons of each shot before picking one. (I'm sure this is much more enjoyable for the guy than the conversations with the moms whose kids are refusing to be cooperative. What can I say, my girl aims to please.)

After bunny photos I let her run around on the germ infested highly alluring indoor playground. She had a blast climbing, crawling, and toddling around. I prefer not to wonder about the sanitation standards of the mall, or else I would lie awake at night with visions of influenza dancing in my head. Instead we just used a copious amount of hand (and foot) sanitizer and she went on her merry way.

Caroline's Easter dress is all ready to go, but she still needed shoes. I have searched high and low and believe it or not, it is rather difficult to find a dressy white patent leather shoe with a buckle strap in size Infant 3. Perhaps I am a bit too detailed in what I am searching for, but this is only because I know from experience that anything else will be skillfully removed from her feet and hurled on the floor in less than 10 seconds. The buckle strap is essential. So with this in mind, I headed to Marshall's on a quest to find shoes. And wouldn't you know it, I found something better instead.

why hello there absolutely precious pint-sized rocking chair....

Who could resist such a fine piece of furniture?? I knew exactly where it's new home should be...in our living room, where the much-beloved jumperoo used to be. (We finally had to retire the jumperoo after 7 months of dutiful service. She has finally outgrown it and prefers to be entirely mobile, not confined in any way. That, and Bill was growing paranoid that her excessive jumping was causing the stucco to crack. I kid not. He showed me where the hairline fracture is located on the outside of the house and is completely convinced that her enthusiastic gymnastics has caused it. Sigh.)

Nana was just as thrilled with the fantastic find as I was and offered to give it to Caroline as an Easter present ("one that will last a lot longer than the toys!") So now it has taken up residence in our living room and Caroline loves it! She's been practicing her rocking skills.

So we've made our list and checked it twice and now it's time for the Easter bunny to hop on over for Easter morning! We'll be in Louisiana for Easter weekend and we're looking forward to seeing everyone!