Easter feasting, crashing and remembering

And .... we're back.

Went away for the Easter weekend to visit my parents and had a lovely time (although we missed the JellyGirl).

I think the adults were as excited as the toddler for the Easter Bunny stuff. We had baskets and books and bunnies but when Mela came down on Easter morning, she saw one coloured, hard-boiled egg and was already thrilled.

"Egg! Egg!"

Really, we could've stopped there.

Maybe we should've. Instead, she had a few too many jelly beans (we put them inside plastic eggs and hid them - who could've guessed she'd find them all in the first 10 minutes?!).

An hour later, she was laughing manically and hopping from room to room.

Two hours later, she was crashing, which meant constant howling and meltdowns. Maybe not surprising considering how careful we are with her sugar intake (does that make a weird case for more day-to-day sugary food? Probably not).

A long walk to the park in the artic wind didn't help either, although a beautiful duck was nice enough to swim over and quack at her (which made her life).

Other highlights included the emergence of some new words, including "BaPa" for grandpa, which she was so proud of, she called for him every five minutes.

Although he got the short end of the Easter presents, Butters Nate was entertained all weekend by the noise and commotion. He kept the solid food train chugging by devouring all kinds of new textures (including his sister's rejected cheese-melted onion bun!) and even managed to impress his gastronomer grandfather with his ability to pack away the purees.

I love it.

When we came back yesterday, we left Mela behind with the grandparents for some quality bonding time (and some quality Mom-without-a-defiant-toddler time). Sadly, we also left the camera behind (grabbed it out of my bag for a last minute photo shoot of the bunny cake!).

Which means not many holiday photos for now, except a few from family members:

Jelly bean feasting:

Dapper Nate:
Hanging with Bapa:
Waiting for the big dinner:
I was also browsing the photos from last summer and can not get over how much Mela Jane has changed. (Can you tell I miss her already?!)

It actually made me tear up a bit. I look at these pictures and wonder what happened to this little beautiful baby girl. I blinked and it was over. Did I really appreciate it enough at the time? Did I kiss her and love her enough every day?

And if I feel this way now (8 months later), how nostalgic am I going to feel 3 years from now? 20 years from now? Will I remember any of the details? Will I cry every time I see a baby?

You look forward to having kids almost your whole life and then the baby part is over in a second. We're so busy every day that I rarely have time to really stop and absorb and enjoy things. It seems terribly unfair that the most precious time goes by so fast.

Although I was 9 months pregnant, with friggin' contractions every couple days, so really, how grateful could I be?

Here are some pictures of my 16 month old girl that took me down memory lane:

Tubby toddler just learning to collect and organize things:
Still a baby, really:
Little browned bean:
Practicing the steps:
Taking a break from all the fun to drink some diluted juice:
With only one child, we used to do things, like go to restaurants and eat on patios:Because it was summer, we could go to parks and Farmer's Markets:... and street fairs:
Two babies, one outside, one inside:
So unbelievably uncomfortable to carry around a 10 lb baby all day long:
I can almost smell this picture. It's a mix of sunscreen and chlorine and warm skin that's been in the sun all day, and that sweet smell of a baby:
Ah, if only we knew what was coming:
And here's Easter last year!