New Life. Wow.

The Olson's had a great Easter -- early, early morning; subdued and joyful service celebrating Christ's resurrection; delicious church breakfast; FUN Easter egg hunt (see below); more good eating (smoked ham with orange-honey glaze, sour cream mashed potatoes, green bean bake, Jello, strawberries and bananas, deviled eggs, choco-chip cookies courtesy of Gma E and P!), naps almost all around. Then we--well, J--moved on to the next big project; moving furniture and tearing up flooring in preparation for Monday's carpet install. From Jesus triumphing over death to 80s-era marblized carpet kissing the dust. Fun!

So P completed his official first Easter egg hunt (last year he wasn't quite old enough or conscientious enough to participate) and he LOVED it. Gpa E and J hid the plastic eggs around the living room and dining room while we drove to get some milk. P didn't even want to take off his coat when he walked into the house; he went right for the eggs and put them in his basket in the middle of the room. After a few deliveries to the basket he spontaneously adopted a kind of half chicken walk, half scoot (we'll just call it his hunting pose): arms behind his back, hands flpped up, his torso bent, feet shuffling, neck stuck out. He thought he was something, and so did we. Now Daddy will adopt the hunting pose and P will get a big grin on his face and copy him.

One last P thought, related but unrelated to Easter: P found our copy of A Child is Born early this week, and we looked at it for a few minutes before he lost interest. [Quick ad here: This is an amazing, amazing book--awesome photography that leaves no doubt that babies are people from their first moments.] Anyway, then P found the book again a day or so ago and wanted to "read" it. He sat on my lap (what's left of it) and we looked at pictures of babies in utero, and I'd say, "P, this is what baby S looks like." P looked very carefully and turned pages, and we got to the end, and I said, "Pretty soon you'll get to see baby S like this baby [pointing at the book]." He watched very carefully, and after a moment of quiet, he said, "Wooooooooooooow." It was perfect--unprompted and so appropriate. We couldn't say it better ourselves. So here's to new life, Easter, meeting babies face to face.