First thing’s first: if you entered the giveaway for a signed copy of the RG book (and more fun stuff, as you can see), click over to this post (or check your email) to see if you won! I still haven’t heard back from a couple of winners, so I’ll give it until Friday before selecting more names.
Next: Easter adorableness, oh my.
Last year’s Easter hunt was…is “disaster” too strong a word? I gave it a 2 out of 10 because there were Now And Laters, which are delicious, but there were also tears and egg-crazed four-year-olds who needed to be physically body-checked away from the single egg that my one-year-old was desperately trying to pick up (hey, you gotta do what you gotta do).
Witness.
This year? Much better.
We went to a pancake breakfast/meet the Easter Bunny/egg hunt thing thrown by the performing arts committee of our local high school, and: much calmer.
Look at that happy face! This is literally the first time our son has reacted with anything but horror to an adult dressed up in a large, furry costume, and instead of finding any kind of middle ground (e.g. quiet, non-tear-inclusive observation) he went straight to Full On Obsession territory – bunny high-fives, bunny hugs, needing to be physically separated from bunny in order to give other kids a turn.
I guess a year really does make a big difference.
This was another one of those days that make me teary when they’re over; I want so badly to go back and re-live every second.
Speaking of re-living days: have you ever seen the movie About Time? We watched it this weekend, and the “point” of the movie is basically that it’s worth the effort to try to live each day with a little extra awareness, a little extra appreciation for even the tiniest moments. Years ago, I read this article somewhere (maybe in one of my psychology classes?) that said that “happy” people (as in people who tend to rate high on the “happiness/general life satisfaction” scale, whatever that means) are more likely to cross over to the other side of the street for no other reason than that it’s sunny.
I thought that was such a lovely thing; to cross over just to be in the sun. And ever since I read those words that really is what I do, and it really does make a difference, taking that second to appreciate nothing more than a little extra warmth on your face.
Having a child has made all that extra attention to small, beautiful moments that much more important to me, because there are just so many. And I want to hold on to every single one.
Another fun thing we did this weekend: break out the BBQ for its seasonal inauguration (that’s a potato-avocado salad, arugula dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, and marinated skirt steak). Having dinner all together – by which I mean sitting in actual seats at an actual table, as opposed to sort of gathering around the coffee table and fending for ourselves – isn’t something we do as often as I’d like.
Usually I feed Indy around 6 and sit with him while he eats, and then worry about my own dinner (or my own and Kendrick’s, if he’s home) after he goes to bed. But now that the days are getting longer, I’m starting to not care about that hard-and-fast 7:30PM bedtime; if we forget to start grilling until 6:30 and then eat at 7 and then need to run around in the yard for a bit afterwards…so what?
Back to that appreciation thing: running around in the yard at twilight is always worth being a little more tired the next day.
Totally random thing that I need to show you: when I told my husband I was giving myself a manicure and asked him to grab me a few cotton balls from the bathroom on his way downstairs…this is what he brought me. Tub ‘N’ Tile wipes. I don’t even know what else to say about that, but in the background you can see how very proud of himself he was for his innovative nail-polish-removal strategy.
The weekend wrapped up with a bunch of radio interviews and some QT with my parents’ cats, who our son now imitates (“ME-OWWW”) whenever he wishes to convey grand emotion.
