Easter

Easter weekend was full of "firsts" for Padyn. To understand what I mean, you need to know that our first daughter is a bit of an introvert. Don't get me wrong. If she knows you and is comfortable in a situation, she is thoroughly outgoing to the point of occasionally being annoying. But if she is around a bunch of people she doesn't know, she'll clam up. Also, she tends to be timid in situations where other children jump in with both feet. Animals, for instance. She loves animals, but when we get to the petting zoo at the park, she is all about looking. She doesn't even want to go inside the enclosure. She likes to look from a distance. Forget about actually petting the animals. It's never happened.

Until this weekend. And you thought only one miracle happened on Easter.

On Saturday, we went with the girls' Papa and Bon Bon to The Club for an Easter extravaganza they were putting on for the kids. It was a circus. Seriously. It was like every kid's birthday party rolled into one day. Besides the traditional Easter bunny and egg hunt, there was a bounce house, pony rides, a petting zoo, a bird show, crafts, a goody bag, and a kid friendly buffet lunch.
I was sure we would spend most of the day in the bounce house. Padyn never even noticed it.

She was fascinated with the bird show. After much cajoling, Daddy even got her to stand next to the bird for a picture. She wanted to ride the pony. Again, I was sure we would stand in line for 20 minutes, in the bitter cold, it would finally be her turn, and she'd cry "No!" and we'd have to just look at the ponies. But to my surprise, she actually got on, rode around for her allotted minute and a half, got off and said she wanted to do it again! And then she went into the petting zoo enclosure and actually PET THE GOATS! I was so proud. Of course, she refused to go near the Easter bunny (who, I admit, looked creepy), and she was too overwhelmed by the number of children running around to look for eggs during the egg hunt. But, hey, you can't go expecting her to change all at once.

On Sunday, it continued to rain, so no Easter egg hunt at church. Instead, when we went to Papa and Bon Bon's for dinner, we hid plastic eggs in the house for her. She loved it. So we did it five more times. This morning, when she woke up, the first thing she told Daddy was she wanted eggs. When he asked if she wanted to eat eggs, she said, "No. Hunt." That's my girl.