Sweet Treats

Bittersweet

I awoke to a horrific migraine today. My 5 a.m. Relpax didn't work so at 8 a.m. I broke down and gave myself an Imitrex shot. We missed Easter Sunday church but I finally did pull the two of use together and we took our Peeps cupcakes and made it in time for a little luncheon afterwards. I decided to save her beautiful new dress for her 3 yr. old pictures and birthday next month. We've already had many fun Easter activities including a great Egg Hunt yesterday. I thank God for my mom who once again saved the day and entertained Abbey so that I could lay down. We did manage one fun thing this morning...
I printed out little pictures of items around the house from do2learn and taped them to her eggs. She went on a little hunt using the clues and got very excited. One egg would have a picture of her socks and she would go to her sock drawer and find another egg with another picture. There were some little toy prizes along the way like a wind up chick and some Easter Little People toys and finally the last one took her out the front door to her basket. Her favorite surprise in there was a Kelly doll with a helmet riding a bike. She was so cute to watch running around.
She amazed me again this week when she went up to some bunny and egg decorations at home and said, "Easter Bunny, Easter Bunny what do you see? I see eggs looking at me." That was her text transformation of Brown Bear, Brown Bear so now it's our new little language game.
And as for the true story of Easter she likes to say "Don't cry!" as the angel said to Mary at the tomb of Jesus. He is not here, He is risen!!

Bunny Bravery

She's scared of lions (I keep assuring her there are none in the house) but, "I not scared of dat Eater Bunny Mommy." She has also been talking about "Ho-Ho" (Santa) and the Easter Bunny all mixed together. It's clear to her now that they both give you candy. She is so excited about the eggs, bunnies, and all of it. We went on a trial run egg hunt yesterday and I am glad we did because we had some problems and will now be better prepared for the real one next weekend. First, I didn't know until right when the gate opened that parents couldn't go in and neither did she. I pushed her on in but she just kind of stood there frozen. I kept yelling "pick up the eggs, pick up the eggs!" which she did begin to do, but we were still trying to get over the fact that we had been separated. Then my new camera stopped and I had no idea why, I later found out that I had not charged the battery. Then she cracked open the eggs which I had said would have candy and they had nothing, empty. Next week will go much more smoothly I hope. She really had fun at all the little game booths they had and I must say that she has a very good throwing arm. She got lots of fun little prizes. When she wakes up from her nap we will be dyeing eggs today!

Growing Pains

Just this morning I was thinking about how wonderfully distracting it is to have someone so cute in your rear-view mirror. This evening a whole different scene took place. Abbey had her first tantrum. I am hoping it was due to the time change and the fact that she had a very short (1 hour) nap today. She usually says "no home" when I pick her up from daycare, meaning that she wants to go out and have some fun as opposed to dinner, bath, and bedtime. Sometimes we do go out for some errands or out to dinner and she loves it, but of course we usually do go home. Tonight the whole thing escalated as we drove past a shopping center where I had recently taken her for her first frozen yogurt (with mini m&ms). I don't let her have many treats so it was a really big deal. When she realized we were going past the same place today she completely melted down. I was shocked. She was literally yelling at me to go back and had a fit the whole way home. For a brief moment I considered giving in and then got a hold of myself, what was I thinking? Reinforce this behavior? But since she never acts like this and was short on sleep I ignored as best I could (and prayed softly, but loud enough for her to hear) until we got home and then had a special talk, followed by another one before bedtime, at which time she said she was sorry and I explained future consequences for yelling at Mama. I hope we both have a very good night's sleep.
I've been tied up all week with report cards and taxes but am free at last. We celebrated by going to get Abbey's Easter dress yesterday. This followed and emotional morning at church. My sister and brother-in-law resigned from pastoring our church last week. I did pretty well at their big farewell party, but when it came to going this week and not having them there, it just about did me in. I was bawling through the worship and kept thinking "I can't do this, I have to leave." I could see a guest speaker up front and his wife and can you believe my attitude... I was thinking that I didn't like them, for no reason, I just didn't like that they were there and from the back of their heads I didn't like them...very silly, I know. Anyway, when he actually got up to share it turned out that this couple had adopted three children from a country in Africa that has never had any children adopted out to America. It took them six years and they made trips over during that time and decided they would parent these children even if they had to do it long distance and could never bring them home. It was a wonderful message and of course I loved this couple so much as I heard their story. Fickle, huh? But God really met me right where I was at and just when I thought I couldn't move forward he had the right people there at the right time.