Easter 2011 or "Gee, I did love that girl"

Easter means we gas up the car and head to Grammy and Grandpa's house.  Happily, Grammy did not have Easter dinner hosting duties, so that meant we had more quality time than we've had in Easters past. Some highlights:

1.  The Akron Zoo.  The Nugget claims his favorite animal was the flamingo.  I maintain his favorite part of the zoo was probably spotting a backhoe at a construction site.  He picked out a toy tractor for his souvenir.  I love that zoos have reciprocal memberships - what a great, cheap experience!  We got to meet Uncle T and his new girlfriend A.

2.  Easter Mass.  I convinced the folks that a 2-3 hour vigil might not be a positive experience with our perpetually moving child, so we headed to a late morning Mass instead, armed with approximately 5000 quiet toys and snacks.  We got SO lucky with our pew neighbors...2 ladies behind us who were smitten with the Nugget and whispered to him while he gave them stickers and demonstrated all his toys.  And a little girl in front of us who peeked at him coyly and at one point, reached out her little hand to him.  He grabbed it, eagerly and gently in his own and looked back and forth to her...to us...to her, just beaming!  They held hands like that for about 2 minutes while big sister looked on with furrowed brow before her dad whisked her  away.

At the very end of the service, the priest invited the children up to the altar, and I prayed fiercely that the Nugget would not knock over a candle and set the church on fire.  Instead, he stood facing the congregation and gave his best pageant-wave, shouting, "Hi Grammy!"  Then, he weaseled his way up to the priest, then decided there was nothing exciting happening and trotted back to us.  In the car after church, the Nugget sighed happily, "Gee, I did love that girl."

3.  Egg Hunt and Easter Party at Aunt B and Uncle G's.  Aunt B set up a very elaborate egg treasure hunt for the Nugget, and cousin M helped set up a lot of their old toys, like a tool bench, gear set, and train tracks.  Plus, the Nugget got to watch some older cousins play Wii bowling.  Afterwards, he used his new orange bath toy like a pretend Wii controller, pointing it towards the TV and yelling, "I win!"  The Nugget was in heaven and came to the table only for ham and cake.

4.  The Nugget mastered two more movie lines (he doesn't actually watch these movies, all he knows is that adults give a great reaction) and he reveled in yelling, "Ma, the meatloaf!" (sans profanity)  Also, "I caught you a delicious bass," then he would insist that the recipient of the delicious bass make munching sounds, "Eat it, please."