Nibbled

Yesterday was the first time the Easter Bunny visited Matilda and it made for the best Easter Tim & I have had in years. It was such a riot to watch her take it all in, trying to figure out what exactly this bunny business was all about.

We hid a dozen eggs (mostly filled with stickers, two with jelly beans, a few with gummy fruit snacks & two with little plastic animals) and rapidly discovered that 12 is too many for a-not-quite-two-year old. As luck would have it the first one M found had jelly beans, a quick introduction to the real core of Easter for most of us: sucrose. As she popped the egg open, beans flew everywhere and the chorus of "THIS?" began. We explained they were a treat and after tentatively trying one she wasted no time cramming the rest in her mouth. There was no mad dash for the eggs, as I am sure we will see in future years. Each egg she opened would easily occupy her for 15 minutes, or until we egged her on to continue the hunt. The toys were carefully inspected, the beans eaten, and the stickers had to all be methodically taken off their sheets and applied to someones shirt. Tim & I both had quite festive pajama tops by the end of the morning.

When Matilda first noticed her basket, tucked behind the couch corner, she didn't seem to register its significance. It wasn't until she noticed a few jelly beans strewn in the grass that she showed greater interest. The basket was filled with an obscene amount of candy, complete with chocolate bunny, a peanut butter egg, chocolate carrots and chocolate bees & ladybugs (I have to confess, almost all the candy was rapidly stashed away for later consumption by Mom & Dad).

The poor nibbled bunny shown above was the funniest part of the morning for me. Once Matilda took her first bite she was smitten. She would hold him in her sticky hands and gaze in amazement. After a fair amount of nibbling on the ears and feet we convinced her to lay him back in the basket in order to continue the egg hunt. For the remainder of the egg hunting each time the bunny would catch her eye she would literally drop everything to snatch him up again. After not too long of this routine the bunny was quite melty and Matilda too chocolate covered to continue so he was banished to the fridge where he has been forgotten. (Although I think their love affair cold easily be rekindled with just one glance.)

First bite of chocolate bunny.

Mr Bunny's night before prep.