Second Easter

We hope to post some Easter photos soon. (Thank you, Matt, for posting the video to tide the masses over.) Prepare yourself for cuteness. Tobin went a little more casual with this year's Easter outfit (no sweater vest), but maintained the level of adorableness. Actually, I think he gets more endearing by the day, so I'm gonna go ahead and just say that he is cuter than he was last year.

Of course, we believe that Easter is about more than eggs and clothes and candy, but I think those are all fun ways to introduce Tobin to the larger idea that Easter is special and important. We were so happy to have Aunt "Ackley" and Great Aunt "Weez" with us for the long weekend, visiting from "Ju-ga" and "Weez-i-hannah" respectively. (T is killing on the geography these days--even knows that "allilators" live in "Fo-ri-duh" just like Mimi and Grandpa.) We all went to the Easter service at our church, where Tobin seemed to enjoy the music before succumbing to a nap while sitting in his daddy's lap. As we were leaving the sanctuary, our pastor noted how adorable just-woken Tobin was and Matt quipped that Tobin found "peace" in the service. Our pastor then said something, "Ah, I have that gift."

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out: eating, watching basketball, egg hunting, Tobin taking a second nap in mama's arms while she watched basketball, decorating cookies, and then eating the cookies. Tobin loved the Easter eggs, especially finding exciting things inside them, which in this case included jelly beans, chocolate eggs, and pennies! We even let Tobin eat one chocolate egg and probably like four jelly beans. He has developed quite a fondness for jelly beans, but not in the way you might think. We've given him one (just one) each night at the end of dinner and he holds it between his fingers and says over and over "jella beany!" (imagine an almost Italian inflection). Last night, he had licked the jelly bean a couple of times but was just carrying it around after dinner, and I was kind of unsure about how to get him to relinquish it before he got in the bathtub, because I didn't want him taking it in there. Food and baths don't mix, even for toddlers, I'd argue. Fortunately, right as I was offering to keep the jelly bean safe on my dresser until after the bath, Tobin popped it into his mouth and happily chewed it "all gone jella beany."

So Tobin's second Easter was really lovely, replete with family, church, naps, and probably too much sugar.