Catching Up: A Magical Easter

With Easter almost one week past, I am a bit behind on my blogging. So we step back in time...

This past Easter was absolutely the best Easter I have ever had...and one of the best days in life, all told.

I had stayed up late the night before getting things ready for the Easter Bunny to visit us, but when I woke up I was so excited for the day to begin and to share it all with Kate. When we came into the family room, we found a note from the Easter Bunny! And apparently he had played with all of Katie's blocks...

Kate loved her in-house egg hunt and really took to it quickly, searching high and low. She loved arranging and rearranging her candy on our hassock and eventually put all of her eggs there, too. She also received a basket from the Easter Bunny, and she loved the bendable bunny, the kitty stickers, crayons, and little car.

We then made some orange rolls for breakfast and then Kate and I got dressed. Grandma and Grandpa came to pick us up to take us to Aunt Diane and Uncle Brad's. Easter isn't really Bill's thing, so he stayed home...but it sure is my thing, especially being surrounded by family and sharing happy moments with people I love.

When we arrived, Kate and I played in the flowers for awhile and greeted everyone before settling into Uncle Brad's cheery office for a storytime and nap. While Kate slept, I helped a little with dinner; then we moved her outside onto some lawn chairs while we ate a scrumptious feast. I have never been a big fan of lamb, but the Easter lamb was PERFECTLY cooked and I loved it. We also had ham, wild rice, salads, rolls...the feast was endless.

After awhile, Kate woke up and ate some ambrosia salad with Grandma. Then many of us decided to take a walk to the beach (they live in Oceanside about 1.5 miles from the beach). We traversed our way down the seaside cliffs into a little cove-like area. We could see the lighthouse in the distance and possibly the pier, far away. The sand was wet and glorious and the sun---just beginning its descension---cast golden light on the wave crests.

Kate had never been in the ocean before, and so this would be a memory forever... The beauty was so immense, I could feel my heart fill up. Even though we take so many pictures of her, we didn't take a camera on our walk. But I do not need a picture of that moment, because it will stay with me forever. Everything I love about living was in that moment, and I got to share it with my daughter.

First we drew in the sand: hearts, balloons, smileys, our names... Kate watched the tide rise and then recede for several moments. We sang, and we looked closely at seaweed. The water came up and touched us... For Kate, it was love at first feel...

She knew to hold onto my hands, and yet she wanted to venture out. So fearless, so ready to embrace life. This last quality I hope we always share. We let the water bathe our feet, wash the hem of her dress. She had on a beautiful white dress from her Nana, a dress that danced about her legs in the wind, a dress sandy and beachy. We could smell the salt in the air. The water, while cold at first, felt like an extension of our bodies after a time. We watched the sun dip further to the horizon as we chased the water in and out and splashed and held hands tight.

When we walked home, we crossed back over the train tracks and saw TWO trains come by, hoo-hooing. A perfect time...

Even before she found the note, Kate spotted an egg right away and knew the game was on...

He hid one behind their picture together!

Collecting candy and eggs...

The note and the castle of all blocks, with an egg in the middle...

A blurred action shot: Kate runs to the egg!

There's another one!

Kate searches high...and low...

The flowers at the Lamberts' house...

Happy Easter!

A full length view of her Easter dress from Nana

Mommy and Katie June

Easter with my daughter

Almost Summer

Kate and I went outside for a spell after finishing up the breakfast dishes (we made waffles and scrambled eggs). We took her hula hoop, ball, bubbles, and Meerkat---thinking we would have an early recess before the weather became overbearingly hot. She showed Meerkat all over the yard---she loves her Meerkat---but after about twenty minutes, we were both quite warm and could feel the heat-laze set in as we watched the bees and roly polies.

I took her back inside for a cool down, but then I had an idea: today was perfect for a sprinkler-fest! I changed Kate into her brown polka dot suit and put on some board shorts of my own. We have never played in the sprinklers together before, and it was so much fun:

We prepare the sprinklers and hoses...

Kate getting sprinkled...

Running through the sprinklers...

Kate laughs at the hose...

What a fun moment!

Once we were dry again, we colored for a little bit, had lunch, read some books, and now Kate is napping and I just finished exercising.

A lovely day...

Easter Weekend

For the first time in many years, this coming Easter is full of meaning for me. Renewal. Hope. Life. Return. Everything in the universe feels different with a little Katerpotamus running around! I want to give her a sense of how magical and meaningful life can be...

Our Easter celebrations gained momentum early last week on a shopping trip to the mall to buy baby shower gifts for our friend Lauren and her soon-to-be baby girl, nicknamed affectionately for the moment as Bump. On our way to Janie and Jack, Katie and I saw the Easter Bunny walking around---probably returning from having some carrots for midmorning snack. Then on our way back from Williams-Sonoma, we saw the Easter Bunny sitting on a bench in his forest. Kate and I pulled off to the side to watch him. Recalling the infamous stories about my appalled reaction to the Easter Bunny when I was Kate's age, I didn't suppose for a moment that she would want to sit with him. Yet, when we started to roll away in the stroller, she said, "More more!" I wheeled her back to face him and asked her if she would like to sit with him like the other children were doing. At this, she gave her sign for "yes" very enthusiastically...and so we got in line.

Kate was so excited when it was her turn! She popped out of her stroller and was ready to walk over to him without Mommy. When I put her on his furry knee, she was so proud and happy she could have burst. She got her "excited hands" (little clenched fists by her side) and a contented little smile. After the pictures, she didn't want to leave him, and, in fact, she cried when she realized she couldn't sit with him anymore. But I told her that we would be getting copies of a picture to take home and we would frame it and she could always remember her visit. Sure enough, she has been carrying around that picture off and on for days.

Last night we decorated our Easter eggs. I love being able to share that with Kate. Her first job was to drop the colored tablets into the vinegar to dissolve. She loved that! After the dyes were ready, we put our eggs in to marinate. Kate helped me baste the eggs and then supervised the rest of the job as she ate some dinner from her high chair. She loves her eggs. We played with them after bath, and then again this morning after our dance party. She has learned how to be gentle with them.

This morning we went to an egg hunt in Vintage Hills. I had explained to Kate last night how it worked, and sure enough, she seemed to understand as the hunt began. She put all of her own eggs into her basket, sometimes double-handing two of them very efficiently! Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny were also on hand at the park, and once again, Kate loved being near them. We took our picture with them as soon as we arrived, and then later she wanted to show them her basket of eggs and then simply wanted to sit near them on the concrete. Cute! I told her that because she had been so nice to the Easter Bunny and been friends, that he was going to visit her tonight while she was sleeping and leave her a gift. I bet he will hide some of her eggs, too, and maybe even leave a note.

We collected every bunny in the house yesterday and made a small "classroom" of them in the family room and read The Tale of Peter Rabbit to them (and to Kate). We should make this a tradition.

Kate is napping at the moment, and when she wakes up, I will have her help me make the lemon cakes for tomorrow. Lemon cakes are going to be our Easter tradition, I've decided. I have made them for Easter in the past, but now I have plans to make them every year. I think it is important to have strong traditional structures in place to commemorate each year and childhood.

I was very proud of Kate today---and always am, for so many reasons---because she didn't step foot on the egg hunt field until we were given the "Go!" even when so many other toddlers did and started putting eggs in baskets (and were allowed to, by their---ahem---cheater parents). She really had a respect for the event and behaved with decorum. Afterwards, she was so proud with her basket...sometimes she definitely seems older than 17.5 months.

Here are some pics:

Kate is excited about our egg project

We color the eggs together

Kate and her eggs after bath

So pretty

She held up this egg when I asked, "Which one is your favorite?"

Collecting eggs

Kate's treasures after the hunt

Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny

Kate shows the bunnies her basket of eggs. Note the surprised look of Mrs. Bunny as Kate drops it there! ;-)

Kate loves them and wants to sit near them.

Kate opens Grandma and Grandpa's Easter basket early

A new springtime dress!

A chocolate bunny!

Wild Animal Park Adventure

A few days ago Bill and I took Katie to the Wild Animal Park for the first time. She LOVED
seeing all of the animals, and I loved watching her react and process and savor. At each enclosure, she would say "hi" to the animals and then invariably would attempt to climb into their habitat. Particularly enamored of the meerkats, the gorillas, and the giraffes, Kate also watched the flamingos for awhile, was pointing to the rhinos from the tram, and enjoyed scouting the birds. The "wild animal" of the day, though, had to be the tethered hot air balloon that gave rides over by the lions. She kept waving and talking to it and could spot it from various locations all over the park.

By lunchtime, her new word was "animal" pronounced, "a-mal." Cute. Very cute. She was saying it all day, and I loved how quickly she seemed to internalize the experience. She fell asleep shortly after our later lunch as I walked into one of the stores to gift her a book. We thought about waiting her out so we could take her to see the elephants and condors and so on, but we decided to make it a half day. She loved the park so much---and it was so easy to take her---that we decided to pay a little extra as we left for the annual membership, which also extends to the San Diego Zoo. I have never had annual passes to any place, but this seems right. Just watching her eyes light up, her brain engage... We have a couple of free guest passes, so I am hoping to use one of them to take Mom to see the butterfly exhibit with us later this month. Mom deserves to go since she has been working hard on the new house and since she told us about the butterflies to begin with. But Bill and I are definitely eager to return with Kate...

I feel like I have discovered the Wild Animal Park for the first time, though I have been before. When we went, it wasn't crowded at all and most of the people there were moms with strollers. It is really toddler-friendly and I can't wait to go back. It is about as close as the mall, so I can hop over there with Kate anytime.

I just can't wait to take her back to see what else she learns...

Here are Katie and Daddy watching the lions.

See the lions on the rock!

When we got home, she wanted to draw the animals she saw with me and then she got all of her Little People animals from her barn and her Noah's Ark and brought them over to the table with the blocks. I asked her if she wanted to build an animal park for her animals, and she enthusiastically gave her sign for "yes." We spent a long time building and talking about what we saw and remembered. Teaching Kate is so rewarding, and I love to watch her interest in life develop.

Archaeologist

Katie and I love to be at the park together. We usually start with the swings, and we sing our "Katie and Mommy" song:

It's Katie and Mommy,
And Mommy and Katie,
And we always swing together
Wherever we go.

I love you more than measure,
And we'll always be together.
I love you, little Katie,
I love love you so.

We go backward and forward,
And forward and backward.
You are my perfect lady,
My little Baby Kate.

And so on...I make up more verses as we go.

After the swings, we walk across the grass to the sand and the slides. Kate loves to dig, and recently I found some sea creature toys in our garage that I had kept at the end of the year when one of the seniors did not pick up a final project. It didn't make much sense to throw away good toys, so I just took them home. I figure that if she ever contacts me about wanting her toys back, I will have them...but that seems unlikely. So now we take a whale, an octopus, Flounder and Sebastian (from The Little Mermaid), a Mommy Shark, and a Baby Shark with us to the park.

Anyway, Kate and I created a new game about a week and a half ago. I bury her sea creatures in the sand with some of their parts sticking out. We call this game "Archaeologist." After I get all of them buried, Kate tries to find them and to unearth them.

She is digging for Flounder; the game has begun!

Kate gets really proud when she finds one!

I see a tentacle...is that the octopus?

Look what I have found!

We have fun with "Archaeologist." It helps to hone her powers of extrapolation and hypothesis-testing. She keeps getting better at it, which is always a joy to see.

Planned Parenthood

If you are a supporter of Planned Parenthood, I assure you in advance that this post is not meant to be an invective toward you and your belief system. Until we straighten out our collective abortion ethics in this country through logical and rational discussion, we need to have institutions on both sides of the argument that keep the pro- and anti- groups checked and balanced. That balance is important to me because it ensures (with respect to all social issues) that we preserve the most freedom for the most people until such time as there is overwhelmingly compelling evidence to change our political policies through law.

That disclaimer aside, I'm getting pretty peeved. I don't know how or why I got on the mailing list for Planned Parenthood. I can only guess that somehow I am on some list because I voted for Obama and against Prop 8---and made both of these positions known on Facestalker. :-) Still, I don't have my address public on Facebook, so how PP would have found that...well, it would take a bit of effort.

I have received my third solicitation from the PP lobby in three months. The first one, I threw away and ignored. The mailer made me roll my eyes, not because I disagree with its agenda (which I do) but because the rhetoric in the mailer was meant to be so manipulative but was so transparent...and if there is one thing that always chews me, it is having my intelligence insulted directly or indirectly. I respond much better to straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is, here's-what-we-want-and-why rhetoric. But, hey, I thought. Free country. Just ignore it.

Then I received another one. This time I noticed that, in their quest for monetary contribution, they had provided a return envelope which I could return at no cost to myself. I wrote a polite note on their donation card and requested not to be solicited anymore (and removed from their mailing lists) since I don't support their mission.

However, I have just received a third mailer. My note this time was a bit more biting and to the point: they should remove me, I explained, because they should not be wasting other donation money on me or on having to pay for the postage required of them when I mail my mailer back.

We'll see what happens.

I usually have no grey feelings about solicitation mailers, I guess. I either grow irritated fairly quickly or feel guilty for days...as I do with those children's hospital mailers and the like that come with the free address labels and stickers. I used to throw them away because not donating made me feel too guilty to use them. Then my mom pointed out that I have every right to use them because I didn't ask for them and the stickers are a form of manipulation, too, and so I can stand up for myself and not feel guilty.

So now I use those.

I come from the old-fashioned line of thinking that if I want to support a cause or charity or find a service, I will search it out on my own. I am the kind of person that makes vows never to engage the service of a person who has left a flier on my front gate. I don't like invasions of my space that way. I will seek out the causes, charities, and services I feel I want to support or need to purchase.

What a curmudgeon, huh?

The Mother of Convention

So we just heard from our C.P.A. some unexpected and pleasant news: Bill and I are actually receiving federal and state tax refunds this year. A bit surprising, since we've paid through the nose every other year. It is clear that our state and federal governments are rewarding us for being conventional: marriage, child, a stay-at-home mother.

But really, is this appropriate? What philosophical tax are we paying for government-sanctioned values? Who sets these values to begin with? Why does an unmarried, childless, both-work-outside-the-home couple need to bear more economic burden?

Shouldn't we be concerned about the government rewarding lifestyle choices that should be private?