Bunny Ears & Other Things

Here's Sina wearing the bunny ears that she "made" at daycare yesterday.  Malu dropped her off for a few hours so that he could take an exam and she fared very well.  In any case, she wasn't very happy when I took this picture.  She was trying to crawl somewhere and I pulled her back and made her sit still so that I could take it.  Oh, the things we do for pictures.  And she's going to kill me years down the road when she sees this.

Although Easter is definitely not just all about egg-hunting, Easter baskets filled with candy and finding that all-too-cute and frilly Easter dress for church, I still wanted to make it special for Sina.  After this morning, I realized that I failed miserably. 

First off, I'd been so preoccupied with things at work and never got to put Sina's Easter basket together.  As a matter of fact, I never got her an Easter basket.  I just never made the time.  So, at the last minute (as in yesterday afternoon at work), I called Malu and asked him to head over to the PX to get some of that fake grass to put in a basket that we already have lying around the house.  No such luck...the PX ran out, so Malu ended up getting one of those [cheap-o] premade baskets with the stuffed animals and candy in it.  Oh well, no biggie.

Also, for the past few weeks, I'd been tracking that the egg hunt on post was going to be on Easter Sunday.  I mean, it makes sense, right?  Wrong.  It was this morning at 1000 hours.  No big deal....unless, of course, you show up about ten minutes too late like we did.  Ten minutes and the supposed ba-zillion plastic eggs that the Child Youth Services Center folks laid out had already been scooped up by the other crazy kids living on this installation.  We missed it.  At this point, I was so annoyed that I didn't even want to wait in line for Sina to take a picture with the Easter bunny.  

What's worse is that yesterday at work, I'd stopped by our headquarters to drop off some paperwork and stopped to talk to one of the secretaries.  She'd shown me the beautiful Easter cards she'd received from her grandchildren.  I'd realized that I didn't even think to send out Easter cards this year...to anyone. 

Now, I know that when push comes to shove, if all had gone well, Sina wouldn't have known the difference.  I mean, the girl is only 8 months old.  But I would have liked for it to a better experience for all of us.  I really don't know how my mom did it for my sister, brother and I all those years.  She'd worked full-time and was always busy, but somehow, through it all, she'd have everything together for every holiday.  At Easter, she always had our baskets ready, helped us dye our eggs, and in addition to having an egg hunt at church, we'd have one at home where she'd hide plastic eggs with candy and/or money in it.  As we grew older, she'd have some really cool gift or would take us out to eat.  And she always had cards sent out to family on time.  She just always had it together.

Man, I really need to get myself in gear.  I'm not sure why I'm really taking this so personally.  I think it's the perfectionist in me coming out and the realization that I need to slow down and focus on what's more important in my life.  I also think I just need to make an effort to become better organized. And finally, I think I need to take it easy on myself.  I mean, I've only been a mom for about 8 months now and things are still new to me.  Things just aren't going to be perfect all the time, right?  So there....thanks for letting me rant for a little bit.

Despite the mishap this morning, we did manage to have a decent time.  Part of the Easter festivities for the kids included a cook-out by the USO, where we enjoyed some barbecue, as well as a pony rides, face-painting, and a kid-themed flea market, where we scored on a couple of good books for Sina.  The weather was perfect today, so we walked all around the post and even got some grocery shopping done.  I'm pretty sure Sina had a great time because she wouldn't fall asleep the entire time we were out because there was so much to see.  It wasn't until we got home that she and I zonked out for a good three hours for a nap.  Now that was perfect!

We're excited about the Easter service at church tomorrow and for the fellowship we will enjoy in the evening when we have dinner with friends.  Most importantly, we rejoice and are thankful for the gift of forgiveness and for the One who came into the world to die so that we may have it and be saved.  May God bless all of you this Easter and always!  And to our families and friends back home...we truly are missing you right now!