Easter 2017 and Bow

It is turning out to be a rather gloomy Easter outside, with stormy weather and rain and skies so dark that there is  very little light in the inner pens. But before it started raining, we managed to have some of those warm, fuzzy moments that come from good intentions and mutual affection and respect.

I had begun to feel that maybe we had outgrown Easter egg hunts and candy eggs, considering that Sword is seventeen and Bow is fifteen. I was ready to put aside those traditions, at least until there are grandchildren.

But Sword surprised me this morning with a generous Easter gift. She paid for all the loot with her hard-earned money, and she made the pastel-themed basket herself.

I know, the lighting isn't good, but it's so dark in here today, even with the light on. Bow saw the gift that I got, and he saw that I had also gotten an Easter egg for him, and he knew at once that it was Easter. I was thinking of just giving him the candy-filled egg as a part of his breakfast, but after finishing his grapes and cereal, he spelled., "תני לי לצאת." "Let me go out."

That surprised me, because the egg was displayed on his breakfast table, and he hadn't asked for it. "You just want to go out?"

But then he spelled, "תני לי לצאת. תני לי ביצה." "Let me go out. Give me an egg."

So I understood that he wanted to do what we do every year. I pretend to hide eggs outside, and then he goes out and finds them. Admittedly, it's not much of an Easter egg hunt with just one egg, but I went out and placed the egg in plain view in a high spot in the outer pen. Then I let Bow go out there to find it, and he was perfectly happy to do so. He was excited and cheerful as he went through the maze of corridors to get there.

Finding the egg and retrieving it was no problem at all. But opening it was a completely different matter.

You can see how Bow asks for help in the video. First he motions at me with his left hand while holding the egg in his right. Then he reaches out with his right hand and gives me the egg. I've got to say that removing the shrink wrap with no tools except my keys was not easy. But even after I did that and handed the egg back to Bow, and he had taken it to a different spot to open, he still needed help.

Those eggs are not designed to be opened without serious effort!

Very soon after he had finished eating all the sweet tarts, Bow asked to come in again. It had started sprinkling outside, and very soon after that the sky grew dark, and it began to rain in earnest. So Bow asked for his blanket, and now he is taking a nap.