Here comes Kaia Cottontail

As usual, it being a holiday and all, I'm all over Easter. I've been squirreling away candy -- especially Reeses peanut butter eggs, the small kind. It's kind of
like shovelling the walk in a blizzard -- Rob eats them as fast as I can buy them.

Actually, I've been cutting back because in past years I've thrown out pounds and pounds of candy. It's one of those overcompensating for the lean years -- like the year Briggs and I ended up putting real grass in the baskets because we couldn't find any at the last minute. But I've swung too far in the other direction and have been buying way too much, and I really don't eat that much candy, so it's wasteful.

But I've got my Easter decorations up. I buy stuff when it goes on sale after the holidays and I can get it dirt cheap. I ended up getting two bunny dolls last year -- they're really not as bad as they sound. They're dressed up in elaborate Beatrix Potter-type costumes and I have them waving out the front window. OK, I swear it's a lot cute than it sounds. I've got all kinds of other Bunny droppings around, including a bunny windsock, an Easter egg tree and assorted other decorations.

I have no idea why I do this every year, especially now that the children are gone, but I really enjoy it, so there you go. What's the harm?

We have Kaia come over each year to help dye Easter eggs. This year, I decided we'd make Easter nest cupcakes too, dying coconut green to look like grass and putting jelly beans in the middle. We discovered quickly that Kaia doesn't like coconut. Frankly I've never understood coconut haters, oh well.

Kaia is getting older. She's moving into full-on childhood, which comes with school I suppose. During the past few months since the start of school, she's exploded in her knowledge. She's reading and learning letters. She's counting and adding. She's at the "Watch me do this" phase, which my girls went through, when every hiccup was worthy of note. There's nothing wrong with this IMO. After all, if you can't get unfettered praise when you're 5 ...

We have a lot of fun working on my little projects; something I cherish for the fleeting thing it is. When the girls were little people always said, "the grow up so fast," and when you're in the middle of it, with the insane running around and craziness, those words seem like silly prattle. But they do. It's a cliche because it voices a universal truth.

I guess that's why they invented grandchildren.