Ben got the kids some of those pre-packaged Easter baskets this year, which was fine by me. Less work on my part. We put them into the locked storage room until Easter came. A few days before Easter, I had this cleaning/organizing attack and started going through my storage room. The kids were upstairs playing. I totally forgot about the Easter baskets, there in plain sight. The kids started fighting, of course, and the two oldest came downstairs to tattle on each other. They walked into the storage room, yelling simultaneously, and then stopped dead in their tracks. They had seen the Easter baskets. That the Easter bunny is supposed to bring them. Sitting in our storage room. Sadie's face was pure joy. Dylan's face was pure confusion. Sadie yelled, "EASTER STUFF!!" Dylan looked at me like, "Wait a minute..." I shooed them both out of the storage room.
I thought for sure Dylan would bring up the whole "Then is the Easter bunny real?" issue, which might inevitably lead to a "Is Santa real, then? Or the tooth fairy?" issue. But over the next few days, he kind of took on a "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. He didn't mention it again. Sadie didn't either, because I don't think she made the connection. As the kids were pulling stuff out of their Easter baskets, Dylan took special care to thank me and Ben for the stuff - no mention of the Easter bunny.
And that was the end of it.
I'm considering telling Dylan about Santa/The Easter Bunny/The Tooth Fairy this fall, before Christmas. I learned when I was seven, and he'll be seven by then. And I'm tired of carrying on the charade with him. He might blab the truth to Sadie, but I remember keeping the secret well after I found out. I felt so superior to my naive sisters after that, winking eggageratedly at my folks as I yelled, louder than necessary, "OH MY GOSH, SANTA IS JUST THE BEST. IF HE WAS HERE, I WOULD THANK HIM FOR THESE PRESENTS." Dylan might find the same pleasure in feeling superior to his siblings. He usually does. :)
Some pics from Easter morning -
I got Ben some nicer candy for his basket - he is a chocolate lover:
Dylan playing with some cheap plastic gun that broke like two minutes after this picture was taken:
Sades with one of her toys:
Micah with Sadie's new sunglasses. He loves these things:
That is one of the cutest pictures EVER.
4 comments:
Love love love that picture of Micah. Can I confess I believed in Santa well into my teens. The whole slew of parental myths. Easter Bunny, Santa, Tooth Fairy. All of them. I tried to get the truth from my mom or sister and NO ONE would tell me. I would stress and cry about "What do I do when I'm a mom? What if I still don't know for sure!?" My mom's answer: Pray about it.
How funny!! I want to tell my kids about Santa now because I think they focus on the Santa part of the holiday too much:P Great pictures! I LOVE that one of Micah! Too stinkin' cute!:)
We've never really stressed the Easter bunny. And I told you about Steph, right? That her hubby's fam didn't do Santa, so now they don't. And at first I was like, dude, what kind of parent ARE you? And now I know-a smart one, because she never had to "lie" to her kids.
What a cutie that Dylan is - what a good boy. You got off easy! He's just playing along now.
I remember my "easter bunny" getting me the coolest things for my baskets and now all I'm seeing is junk o junk!
Is that the joy of childhood? Or has stuff just become crap since then? My kids have played with the sidewalk chalk and the bubbles they got - and that's about it.
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