Happy Easter!

Louis loves making connections. So I wasn't surprised a few weeks ago when he started asking about Easter and then said, "Easter is the Year of the Rabbit?" Then last week he came running up to me with his empty Easter basket yelling, "Trick or treat, Mama! Trick or treat!"

We apparently haven't done a great job introducing holidays. I didn't think we had even talked much about the Easter Bunny--and I wasn't actually worried about that. There's another aspect of Easter that's slightly more important. But the other day when Louis and I were at the mall, he overheard a child say he had just seen the bunny. "The Easter Bunny is here?" Louis asked. "It is Easter?"

Because I had been watching Louis eat an ice cream cone for 20 minutes and I was starting to think it would be Halloween before he was finished, I suggested that if he stopped eating, we might just have time to go meet the bunny.

He happily discarded the cone, and we were off.

Other children might fear a tall white rabbit. Louis shouted, "HI, EASTER BUNNY!" from halfway down the mall. When it was his turn, he enthusiastically climbed into the bunny's lap, started petting him, and stayed put long after the photographers wanted him there. He was absolutely content.

 

"He didn't talk, did he?" I asked Louis later. "No, bunnies don't," he said. "They just move. And then they stop."

Now, we all know Easter isn't just about the bunny. It's also about egg dying.

It's hard to believe this is a good children's activity.

Glasses full of dye? Hard-boiled eggs, just waiting to crack?

And we're letting our 3 1/2-year-old son have free rein?

Somehow, while dying eggs for Louis, Mama, Baba, Puppydog, Cat in the Hat, and the Easter Bunny himself, we managed to break only one egg.

Then, because in my family we always left a treat for the Easter Bunny, I let Louis pick something from our fridge. He agreed carrots were the way to go and carefully arranged them on a plate.

 

The next morning when we came downstairs, we went straight to the plate.



Then Louis--and the Cat in the Hat--went to check on his basket.

I doubt car carriers have much to do with Easter.

And I'm pretty sure there were no chocolate bunnies that first Easter morning.

But there was plenty of joy in our house on Easter Sunday. And our boy showed his sweet compassionate side, sharing the last carrot with the bunny he found in his basket.

As pleased as Louis was to be wearing Batman pajamas--a recent hand-me-down treat from his friend Charlie--he was very excited to hear we would be wearing our Easter clothes to church. He was less excited about the photos his mother wanted of the day, but I insisted on taking a few.

After Mass--and a visit to the St. Michael statue to drop a line on his little brother's behalf--Louis was a bit more amenable. When his father propped him in a tree--like the Lorax, of course--Louis lit up.

Louis loved that he was wearing a Baba jacket and a tie.

And they were awfully cute together.

Baba even persuaded Louis to try on a hat, last summer's splurge--and it still fits. Now we just need a matching one for his father.
  

Louis thought the tree was pretty funny. And I asked him to help me tell Baba knock-knock jokes to get this smile.

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and got down to business--still in the button-down shirt, of course.

There were eggs to be found.

And there were Cheerios and Goldfish inside them.

 

Louis loved the egg hunt so much he asked to do it again and again. When I wasn't quick enough hiding the eggs, he took on the task himself, hiding and then finding all the eggs. He was delighted.

Then because it's Easter--and the Year of the Rabbit?--Grandma made us a real treat: a bunny cake. Louis joined in as we sang "Happy Easter to us."

Back at home that night, we set to work hatching an egg with a tortoise inside.



Does Louis look confused to you? He's trying to read the directions that came with the egg.

Or is he reading the story of the Tortoise and the Hare?

Who knows? Happy Easter to all and to all trick or treat!