When you are four years old holidays can be exciting – overly exciting! Little Man has been geared up for this next holiday for months. All of us have been keeping it cool but today it all spilled over into craziness. We are families that are not deeply tied to the religious side of Easter, but have celebrated this time as the coming of spring and sharing religious stories from many backgrounds. At four the Christian crucifixion story is not one we are going to spend time on now. That means this is a day of Easter bunnies, flowers, eggs and all things spring.
Today Little Man was spending the day with us. He came in bubbling with plans for the day. There were eggs to dye, we needed to fill plastic eggs with M &M’s for an egg hunt that he and the neighbors 4 year girl plotted out on Wednesday (who knew??) and there were cookies to be made and sprinkles were needed. Whee! So much to do.
Snag number one: came in that we needed to hard boil eggs before we can dye them. Too long! So Little Man and I took a trip to the grocery store for other needed items. We also swung by the coffee shop for apple juice and a chai for me.
While driving we sorted out the plan that we would first mix cookie dough, roll out and cut out the cookies. Then while they were baking we could dye the now hard boiled eggs. Ok, this seemed like a plan.
While mixing the dough with Little Man proclaiming this was the best day even.
We rolled out the cookies, cut out rabbits, tulips and butterflies and into the oven they went.
Suddenly I am there in the kitchen rolling, cutting and checking the oven with no Little Man. He had had enough. He had gone off to the bathroom never to return. I found him in the living with my I-pad trying to remember the code to open it. Yep, I was left to finish the cookies.
Snag two: It was lunch time and I needed a break before egg dying would happen. I was now working my way to the dog house. He was not happy with me. That was not the plan.
We pushed through since I needed to clean up the cookie mess and reset for eggs and sit down.
After struggling through lunch – basically not eating on his half, we dyed eggs. The package of dye was space oriented so we also had a small science experiment with the dyeing. Not sure how this all fits into Easter but we created a fizzing reaction with vinegar as if our eggs were taking off into space.
Snag Three: The eggs were left to dry and I declared it was time for reading and resting. I think I needed it more than he did. Although he had been yawning on and off all morning. He agreed but dragged himself upstairs.
I promised we would frost cookies and sort eggs for his planned easter egg hunt after the rest. I was hoping he would drift off for a short daytime nap. He had now yelled at me at least three times about a variety of things.
We read the ending of Zita the Spacegirl and he yelled he was not tired and was not going to lay down and stormed down the steps. I found him drawing and coloring furiously. I let him be. We did receive one written note from him that stated he did not Love us – sign Mason. I did ask why and he just growled.
About 20 or 30 minutes later he stated he felt better and what would we do now. We made his eggs into planets with rings around them. We counted out M & M’s to go into the plastic eggs for the egg hunt. We found easter egg grass and made a nest for wooden eggs and fake birds.
He had settled!
Until his mom arrived and the wildness began again. Running in circles around the house, and telling us all what we were to do.
I apologize knowing their evening was not going to be fun. They had one wild, hungry, and tired kid on their hands.
I must say I was glad he was headed home. I love the dear kid but I was ready for a glass of wine, a quiet dinner and a good book.
Sunday should be interesting!
Words from JL 
Always nice to see a grandkiddo but sounds like you earned some resting time!