Hop, hop, hop, hop, hippity, hop!

I remember my Easter morning's fondly. Heading out to the baskets which I knew were full of Cadbury eggs, peeps, chocolate and a lovely stuffed bunny. I remember that my sister always ate all her Cadbury eggs and that I hid mine so I could save them to have one every day for the next week (there were usually 6). I also remember that my sister quickly uncovered my eggs and ate them all usually before the next day was over. Those that she couldn't find, I usually couldn't find either. Many petrified eggs were often uncovered during our moves over the years. Ah, sweet memories!

Now I get to fill my own babe's basket with goodies and I was totally at a loss what to do. I didn't like any of the baskets I saw in the stores. Holly detests chocolate. I couldn't quite bring myself to introduce Peeps into her life when they remain my candy downfall. So here was our plan. Tom and I decided to make Holly's Easter basket out of paper mache using multicolored tissue paper. I bought some little plastic eggs and then planned to make sugar cookies small enough to go inside the eggs decorated with icing. I bought her some tiny stuffed bunnies and chicks to go inside. And then on a whim, we made her a little straw Easter hat with little plastic flowers.

The results of these best laid plans were somewhat mixed. Her basket has since collapsed so we will need to rethink our structural design next year. The cookies were yummy, but we made the mistake of decorating them Saturday night while sipping wine which resulted in rather Pollock-inspired art work. I also suffered minor guilt on Sunday morning as I watched my baby snarf down sugar cookies for breakfast. Oh well...it's only once a year, right? And they were still probably better for her than biting the head off a chocolate bunny. The little stuffed bunnies, duckies and chicks are a wild success. The hat is very well loved (she wore it to breakfast this morning) although losing flowers quickly. Hop, hop, hop... indeed.

In other news, Holly heads to her 18-month well-baby visit tomorrow. Halfway to 2? Really?!?!? She's still sleeping great at night but has become quite a challenge to get to sleep. Tom (he's had night-night duty since she was weaned) ends up rubbing her back sometimes for an hour as she flops about the crib. Any attempt to rock or walk her results in crying and anger. She walks, runs, hops, climbs and explores. She has stripped our neighborhood of dandelions and other weeds (she would take the roses too, but I talk her out of it). She loves to color. And if, per chance, she should color the floor in the process...well that's even more fun! Because then she can clean up! Oh if only this love of cleaning were to last until the teen years!

Her vocabulary is quite big. She cracked Tom up at breakfast this morning by exclaiming: "Don't like it!" when he gave her some toast. In typical toddler fashion, she went on to eat the next piece of toast. She cracked me up on the way home by saying, "Bite duckie!" when we got home. What was so funny about it was that she had stuffed the little duckie in her mouth and her words were somewhat muffled by the poor duckie who was getting bitten. She knows most of her colors now - she gets them right about 80 percent of the time - sometimes I think she knows that something isn't purple but purple is REALLY fun to say!

I do apologize to Holly's many fans, but posts will be sparse for a bit. We have a lot of things happening at work and some upcoming visitors and travel. Don't worry. She'll be just as fun-loving and cute in June. I promise!