Hippity Hoppity

We're counting down - this time tomorrow we should (c'mon, Delta!) be in the 'Nati, on our way to a long weekend of cousins and too much to eat and staying up too late and belly laughs and some drinks with a high alcohol content. And lots and lots of 'choklit' for one little girl.

This one.

Who, an Easter not so very long ago, was this one.
Her Easter basket will be filled with utter ridiculousness. I bought one of those little baby Build-a-Bear creatures, a panda bear, RANDOMLY, with two little outfits. One of them is an Easter outfit. Yes, they saw me coming. But yesterday morning, when Jelly was getting dressed, wouldn't you know it, talking about Easter she said, NO LIE, 'The Easter Bunny will bring me treats and choklit and a panda!'. Toddlers are strange, strange creatures.

I also got one of those electronic eggs that calls out to the kid when you hide it. I played with it for a little while and found it pretty annoying, so we'll see how that goes over with The Bean. There are some soccer-ball plastic eggs, and a little egg that you put in water and it hatches into a little duck, which I REALLY wanted to play with, and some little baby chocolate chicks because DAMNIT 'Max and Ruby', if there wasn't a chocolate chicken in that basket there was going to be hell to pay come Easter morning. I figured I'd wait til I got to Cincinnati to get the actual basket and anything else, like an accordion or live pony (actually, I really need to get a replacement harmonica, but those are unsurprisingly hard to find). Oh, and I got one of those inflatable bunnies. They're hard to find! I bought two, an extra for next year just in case. That was my fondest memory of Easter. I hope it squeaks.

I feel silly, but it seems like parents go all out for Easter nowadays. I was totally taken aback by the Valentine's stuff this year; it's like we have to make every holiday Christmas. To be fair, my parents gave us toys for Easter, but that's because they were hippies so we didn't get chocolate or candy, so we got toys to make up for the lack of delicious sugar surprises. I would have much preferred a giant hollow chocolate bunny to a skipping rope or kite. Although I really did love that red satin baseball jacket, I would never have traded that for jellybeans or crappy Peeps.

Anyone else going crazy, or am I the only one?

**Note: I actually bought 3 Build-a-Bear outfits for the stupid panda. That I am going to have to dress.