Easter Celebrations

I know this post is coming a few weeks late, but oh well. It's here now, and that's what counts.

Eli got to celebrate Easter with two Easter egg hunts this year. The first egg hunt was on Good Friday. A lady in our ward throws a big Easter party and egg hunt for all the little kiddos. Aunt Melanie was kind enough to keep us informed about it and supply the eggs so Eli would have something to find. We took him over to find the eggs for his age group and he really wasn't sure what to do at first.

There were tons of eggs all over so I started to sing the "Clean Up" song. This is the song we sing when he cleans up his toys and it actually works. He'll help pick up his blocks and put them in the bucket when I sing this song. It worked this time as well. We kind of showed him with one egg, and then he got the hang of it, that is, until he realized there was stuff inside of the eggs.

Once Eli popped one of those babies open and saw the colorful jellybeans inside he was completely distracted. He kept hunting eggs, of course, but only to open them up and see what was inside. After the hunt he spent some time playing at the park.

We are learning that, while Eli loves the park and to be outside, he does not like crowds. Mike and Eli wandered around away from the other kids and the craziness and that seemed to make Eli very happy.

On Saturday Eli had his second egg hunt. Mel and I are kind of starting a tradition of doing Easter together. So far Steve and Jen have been able to come up as well, and this year Grandma Cox was even able to be there. We had an awesome ham dinner (I might be biased becuase Mike cooked the ham) and a wonderful time together. Mel went and hid a bunch of eggs in her backyard for the little cousins all to find. This time Eli knew exactly what to do. He was a pro at gathering eggs and putting them in the basket. We all had a wonderful time seeing all of the family and enjoying a beautiful day.

And then it was Easter. This year General Conference was over Easter weekend. I love conference weekend and the ability to stay at home and relax and enjoy listening to all the wonderful talks. This Easter and conference weekend was especially easy. The Easter Bunny actually put our basket together in the kitchen while Eli was eating breakfast.

I'm pretty sure this is the last time it will be that easy. Eli loved the all the fun things to find in the Easter basket. He even found a Cadbury creme egg and started to unwrap and eat it. I helped out by completely unwrapping it, and then grabbing the camera to catch his astonished expression at the goodness he was experiencing.

He also had fun finding the Diamondback tickets we got for Easter.

I'm a Mommy

Occasionally I have a moment where it hits me, "Wow. I'm a mom." It's the kind of realization that is both overwhelming and exhilarating. Sometimes I get so used to the routine of life that I feel more like I am playing house and forget how real this all is. Plus I think there is a small part of me that wants to believe I'm still 14. So when I have these moments I am flooded by the awe and wonder that is motherhood. I had such a moment this morning.
 While he is only 13 months old, Eli is surprisingly independent. He's been walking and playing on his own for a few months now, so our house is pretty childproof. I was watching conference while Eli was roaming around the house. He was back playing in the dogs room when he toddled out, walked up to me, and tapped me on the shoulder with a worried look on his face. Then he opened his mouth to show me that he'd eaten something gross. I think it was drywall. I have no idea where he got it, but he definitely did not want it to be in his mouth. He had this sweet childlike look on his face that said, "Mommy, something is wrong. I need you to fix it." I cleaned out what I could with my fingers and then took him to the bathroom to wash the rest out. Thankfully he hadn't chewed yet and it was just a few big chunks.
For some reason, probably from watching conference, this simple indecent touched my heart. Eli wasn't hurt, he wasn't screaming or crying, he just needed his mom to fix something for him. How lucky I am to be the mommy for this amazing little boy.