This was the first Easter where Owl was old enough to sort of understand what was going on.
Previous Easters may have confused him some.
Anyway, we skipped the whole “Jesus rising from the dead” part of Easter (since “Jesus” and “dead” and “nailed his hands to a piece of wood” are not things he can or should understand yet) so we stuck to the pagan fertility festival part of it.
He was quite excited about the Easter bunny part.
“Mister Bunny come… come to our home… bring me… CANDY!”
“Yes, Owl, the EASTER bunny will hide candy.”
“And eggs!”
“Yes, and eggs.”
“Yes. I like him!’
“So do we, honey.”
After an argument over how much toys/candy a two year old should get for Easter, PH and I settled on hiding ten plastic eggs, five filled with stickers and five filled with lollipops.
I put a toy ball, a colouring book, and a bubble blowing kit in his basket.
Easter was FUN. Even though we hid the eggs as openly as we could, Owl only found a couple without increasingly specific hints.
“How about over there, Owl? Are there any eggs over there? No? Are you sure? Did you look on the shelf? RIGHT THERE AT EYE LEVEL? No? ARE YOU SURE? WHAT ABOUT RIGHT THERE AT THE END OF MY FINGER?”
He was so proud of himself whenever he “found” the things, too. It was very cute, in an “oh my gosh, toddlers have mush for brains” kind of a way. (Owl did not improve his apparent IQ by biting into an Easter Egg, shell and all, and munching on it quietly until I noticed and snatched it away, explaining to him that you DON’T EAT THE SHELL). All in all, “Mister Bunny” was a hit, and he struck multiple times. One of our neighbours made a drop on his behalf on our doorstep, and he got a second hunt at his friend’s house that afternoon.
PH and I are forced to “help” eat his candy while he is sleeping.
You know. To save him from himself. And also because we’re emotional eaters. Pagan fertility festivals for the win.