Easter Antics
On Saturday Mommy took me to Nana’s house. She said Aunt Kirsten had planned some fun things for Easter. So, first we went through all the normal preliminaries of arrival at Nana’s — Nana’s attempt to hug me, elation at first seeing Aunt Kirsten, and excitement and noise upon my uncle’s entrance. This time Grandpa was there, too, so I knew something had to be different about today.
After a little playing, Kirsten came over and, without asking permission, picked me up across my belly like I’ve seen her carry about Tigger the cat. I let her take this liberty without voicing complaint because she usually takes me to do fun things. Sure enough, my patience was rewarded: She took me downstairs and she let me draw with her markers. Just as we were getting settled in down there, Brendan, seemingly with a purpose, rushed upstairs.
In too short a time, Kirsten and I were called upstairs. I still wanted to draw, but Kirsten promised me an even better game. When we got upstairs, Mommy handed me a basket with weird, springy yellow strings in it. Mommy and Nana and Grandpa all started trying to tell me something about eggs and baskets and picking eggs up…sounded like a chore to me, not a game. I saw what they said was an egg, but it looked and felt more like a toy, on the floor. Mommy always asks me to pick up toys on the floor, so I guessed that’s what they were trying to tell me to do. Yep, I was right. More, more, they told me. Why did they have to take me away from drawing to pick up toys that I didn’t even play with?
But then something happened. I accidently dropped one and it broke — and jelly beans flew everywhere! I immediately realized what they were, but you never know if Mommy’s going to let you eat something or if she’ll wrench it from your very hands. Tentatively, then, I picked one up and lifted it up to my mouth, intently watching for Mommy’s reaction. A nod! Yes! I burst into action, lifting those delightful confections from the floor to my mouth with more rapidity than a vacuum cleaner. It was a good thing I did. Just as I had my mouth pleasantly full, Mommy started saying something (I wasn’t really paying attention) and began to scoop those treats away from me! I protested loudly, but then Mommy protested at the brightly colored drool that landed on Nana’s carpet. Now I realized the significance of these “eggs” and wanted to see if they all contained jelly beans, but Kirsten started manuevering me around, telling me there were more eggs. Well, exploration of the current eggs could certainly wait until more of these most excellent toys could be added to the collection.
Eventually egg-hunting ceased, and my mouth was again pleasantly full of jelly beans, even though Mommy was carefully restricting me to only consuming one at a time. In no time, however, Kirsten again corralled me away from the jelly beans (not without difficulty this time). She set me up on the kitchen stool where I usually draw, and I waited for my paper. Then I noticed Nana seemed to be doing something special, and Kirsten, Kevin and Kyle seemed to be paying rapt attention to her. She measured some water from a big container into little cups. Then they gave me what looked like a piece of candy. They seemed to be clamoring that I not eat it, however, and I saw them putting these things in the cup. They had given me a cup, so I threw mine in. The water started fizzing and changed color, but I sure wish I’d been able to eat it instead. Candy is better than colored water — I sure learned that later. After Nana put more water in the cups, they set in front of me a full cup that looked like it had juice in it or something. Then they gave me an egg and a spoon. I figured I was supposed to eat the egg with the spoon, but before I could, they took it away from me and put the egg in the cup! Then they said the spoon went in the cup, too, so I stirred that juice and egg concoction with all the velocity I could muster. Lifting the spoon to see what this had done, I saw it was filled with the blue juice. Juice on a spoon — what else was I supposed to do? I tried it. It tasted a little strange, but as the crowd gasped and laughed, I did not show any evidence of my emotions. I calmly tried it again. I don’t know why they made it; I know Nana can make better juice. They kept giving me different cups, but they all tasted the same, even though they looked different. I don’t know what that was all about.
It was a pretty neat day, full on new things, and after Mommy left for awhile and Nana wasn’t watching, Kirsten gave me lots of jelly beans. Even when I came back on Monday, there were still jelly beans! Kirsten is definitely a good aunt, that’s all I’ve got to say.
