An Amazing Day

It's late at the end of the day on Sunday and Andrea and I are sitting here talking about how amazing our Easter has been.  Truly amazing.  We enjoyed a long, leisurely, rainy day with Annika and Emily.  Homemade eggs benedict and sweet potato home fries filled our brunch plates and mimosas and hot coffee overflowed from our cups. Matzo and jam were available for snacking as a nod to Passover.  Annika and Emily told and very long, detailed, and engaging story about the Old and New Testaments, Jesus, the Jews, Christianity, and Easter.  Gospel played in the background all day long.  There was some knitting and some walking in the rain.  And, most delightful of all, Elliot was extremely happy and engaged for the whole day.  Laughing, hugging, kissing, squealing, playing.  There seemed to be no end to his delight, or in how delightful he was.

It helped that he had the coolest Easter basket ever.  Eggs filled with freeze dried strawberries, bananas, and Snackimals animal cookies that were yummy snacks and made great rattles, too.  A new book called A Color of His Own, by Leo Lionni.  A horse, a polar bear and a panda and a new stuffed Bunny.  Oh my!

His three new animal friends were a gift for Elliot from his SG, Annika, but he picked them out himself.  While at Target recently we went rounds about which animals she should get for him for Easter, finally deciding to just let him pick for himself.  I walked him back down the aisle while she and Andrea lined up a row of different animals on the floor.  I put Elliot down, he crawled straight for the animals, picked up the panda and crawled away with it.  I pointed him back towards the animals two more times and each time he clearly made one choice out of all of the animals and crawled away with it.  This is how the horse, the panda, the polar bear came to be Elliot's newest friends.  

As for his Bunny, this is my newest creation for him.  I nearly pulled an all-nighter last night trying to bring what was in my mind to life.  And I am so happy that I did.  I just love the end result.  (Hilary, do you recognize those bunny legs?  Your rainbow socks live on!)  After I was done with the Bunny's photo shoot I went on to make one more accessory to complete his look:  a cape with a letter E (for Easter, of course) tied round his neck.  It was the perfect finishing touch.  

Thanks to Annika and Emily for filling Elliot's day full of love and happiness.  Thanks to Elliot's nan for his Easter raincoat and his Amuma for another pair of the cutest knitted overalls you've ever seen (more on those later).  Thanks to his Nana the Great for all of his Easterific gifts (swim trunks and shirt for the summer, bubbles, and a big bouncy ball).  And thanks to Andrea for working so hard with me to make this little baby's life so wonderful.  It's worth every minute, wouldn't you say?