The Bunny Saves the Day

I almost didn't buy Child an Easter basket.

Mostly it's just that I kind of forgot. I do that with holidays, sometimes--I'm so busy with everything else that they sneak up on me, and I think "Oh, is it Easter tomorrow? What should we do about that?" on Saturday night. Besides, though we always color eggs and do the Easter egg hunt, we've never made a big deal about the Easter Bunny. Unlike Santa, I have a little trouble trying to pretend that the people in the obvious bunny suits at the mall are real manifestations of an actual creature. I really didn't think she believed in him at all. However, on Saturday night after Child was in bed I was feeling a bit bad, wishing I'd put together a surprise for her. So Wise Hubby said, "go to the store and DO it already."

I did. I trekked to WalMart. I bought a pink-and-purple velvet basket labeled "Princess" in big loopy letters. I stuffed it with pink plastic grass, a new Barbie video, a "surprise inside" Backyardigans egg, stickers of butterflies and flowers, a deliciously soft brown velveteen bunny, and a chocolate Peter Rabbit bunny. I set it out on the rug, where she'd see it in the morning. I had no idea what she'd think, but I figured she'd like it.

I was surprised in the morning that she didn't come in and wake us up, like usual. So around 8 o'clock I headed to her room, figuring I'd tell her there was something out there for her.

She greeted me with a big smile. "Mommy," she said, in all six-year-old seriousness, "Come with me. I have to show you something." She took my hand and led me back out to the basket. "Look!" Her voice shook now, a little, with excitement, as she pointed. "There's a basket, with a chocolate bunny in it! Do you know what this means?"

I shook my head, wondering what it DID mean to her.

"The Easter Bunny must have come! He left me a basket! The chocolate bunny is proof. The Easter Bunny always leaves chocolate bunnies."

I beamed. Good choice, Mom, I thought to myself. Followed shortly by You just passed that test by the skin of your teeth.

A little while later, after opening everything on our bed so Daddy could see, she looked at me thoughtfully. "The Easter Bunny must have peeked in my room," she said. "How else would he have known that I am a Princess?"

Hope you all had as happy of an Easter as I did. It'd be hard to top that, though.

The quote from my planner today: "I dream, therefore I become." -- Cheryl Renee Grossman