Easter

Our house, this Easter, has been hit by 'the Feev'. It started with Sam on Wednesday, a sleepless night spent with a smoldering Sam lying perpendicular between Elise and I. You could have fried an egg on his forehead or toasted a marshmallow over his tummy. I woke at 12:30 Friday night with shivers that rocked the bed so violently Elise thought an earthquake was shaking the house, then last night, around the same time, it was Elise's turn. We've been getting by on a diet of Advil and coffee.

The bug caused me to delay my return to the running circuit. The annual Rooney's 5k course starts at the Town Center and goes right up Central right past our house. I had to sit out, but Josh ran. I think he PR'ed despite the fact that I think our raucous cheering seemed to confuse him as we were the only spectators on our stretch of the course. Afterwards, we headed over to the the town hall for Sam's first Easter egg hunt.

Easter egg free-for-all is probably more apt. Piles of hay were cordoned off with rope. The children were split into age groups. Sam's age group was 3-and-under. About a hundred 3-and-unders with their Easter baskets toed the line like bulls in Pamplona. Volunteers from the rec dept. shouted instructions into a megaphone, barely able to maintain a semblance of order. Originally, we were told we were not able to go into the ring with Sam which would have meant he was sure to be stampeded, but then another volunteer came by and told us that the parents could accompany the 3-and-unders into the ring. The game was on....

As soon as the volunteer shouted "GO!" 100 3-and-unders dove into the ring, tiny elbows flying, flinging bales of hay aside in search of eggs. I spotted one right away at Sam's feet. I think he was so overwhelmed by the feeding frenzy he missed it, so I picked it up for him, afraid it'd be the only egg he would get (I was right and I almost lost that one!). The rest of the eggs were scooped up in approximately point one seconds. Kids came rushing by with Easter baskets the size of small Samsonites and pillow cases full of dozens of Easter eggs. Sam clutched his lone egg til his tiny knuckles were white. I hid and re-hid his one egg to prolong the fun. He genuinely got a kick out of finding his second egg; now that he got the hang of how the egg hunt worked. But the second time I hid Sam's initial egg for him, 4 kids came zooming at it, squealing in greedy delight. Elise's arm shot off, nearly clotheslining one kid toting around enough eggs to make a Denver omelet the size of Montana. We stuck around long enough to see that some of the latecomers didn't get any eggs at all, so we hope, if nothing else, Sam learned a lesson in greed.

He did enjoy his first caramel and he got to see the Easter Bunny and even sit in the fire engine that brought the bunny to the event. After a long Saturday playing in the heat with Nanny-Boo and Aunt Jackie, we went to a new place in Stuart called Pee-Wee, PF Chingie's little brother and Sam ate egg noodle and opened his first fortune cookie which read, "Now is a good time to make new friends" :) He fell asleep in the car on the way home at 6:30 which meant...........

He woke up at 5:30 this morning (yeah for Dad!) :) So we went for a pre-dawn walk to get the mail and came home and get Mom ready for church. Everyone dressed to the 9's. Especially Sam. Rather than leave Sam in the nursery, we decided to all churchgo together as a family so we sat in the "cry room".

This was our first time in the cry room. For some reason, I was under the impression that the cry room was for restless children who couldn't sit still with the rest of the congregation, but, let me tell you, it was a rough crowd in this cry room. When you have to take your child out of the cry room because he is too loud, something is wrong with the cry room! Needless to say, we had the most active child in the cry room. We knew he wouldn't sit still. But the other parents made us feel like he was a wild animal we had found outside and let loose inside. Again, isn't that what the cry room is for?!?! He did share his books with the boy next to us and visa-versa ("...making new friends", he was taking his fortune a little too literally). Elise and I missed the entire sermon, so I'm hoping Barry starts podcasting them on Monday mornings so I can download it and listen to it later!