Easter 2015

I have to say that this was certainly a memorable Easter. It will be known as "The Easter That We Made a Ham" or maybe "The Easter That Cara Puked Everywhere" - either one, I'm not sure which is more catchy.

We started bright and early at 8am getting out the door to go to our favorite breakfast spot in Silverlake for old time's sake. Millie's! I was frustrated because C wouldn't eat her antihistamine laced applesauce. She wasn't eating anything. Very strange. She had about two bites of applesauce and a little cereal and then kept fussing.

We got to Millie's and she rejected the pancakes set before her, instead only sitting down to gobble down a bunch of goldfish crackers that I had in my bag.

E, on the other hand, gobbled down scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, and a biscuit like she hadn't eaten in ages.

We decided to head down to the area where service was being held a little early and walk around the USC campus to show them "Mommy's old school" since we had more than an hour to kill. A few minutes later, I heard C suddenly start crying and turned around to see her mouth and car seat covered in....vomit. Oh, so that's why she wasn't eating very much. E had also been complaining that her stomach hurt, but she's not much of a barfer. We had just installed her new car seat (a brand new red Diono Radian) the night before too! 

We made a stop at a gas station to clean her and the seat up, which took a really long time. I walked around with C while E sat in the car listening to music, watching her Daddy scrub the car seat down with wet wipes with a disgusted look on his face. Finally, we were ready to roll, but right when we got everyone back in the car, E started complaining that her stomach hurt and that she needed to use the potty. Oh God - really?!

So we made another stop since the gas station bathroom was unavailable and probably disgusting. Ended up pulling into the neighborhood Von's and replenishing on snacks too. It turned out to be a false alarm. I wasn't sure if we should still go, but C was acting much happier. So we went along on our merry way, and actually still made it to service early! They had coloring pages for the kids, although that didn't last long.

I honestly didn't catch very much of service having both kids in there since they didn't have the usual childcare options. When we got home, we were quite spent, and everyone had some quiet time. I took a nap with the covers over my head, trying to detox from the barf situation, and did lots of laundry. I mean, I'm a barfer too, but this whole thing was pretty gross - I won't get into great detail, but let's just say that it will be a long time before I can eat cheddar goldfish crackers again. 

Then, I took E with me to TJ's to do some grocery shopping. They were sampling a ham. It was pretty tasty, so I bought it. E loves ham. In fact, the only meat she eats is ham and bacon. And kalbi. It was already cooked and came with a glaze, so I can't say that I actually did much work in making it. But I was just curious - I've never really had an Easter ham. This is what white Americans eat for Easter dinner, right? I had a total Fresh Off the Boat moment. Paired it with some mashed potatoes and kale sprouts, and voila. Simple Easter dinner that can now be an adopted tradition. 

Food coma ensued. All in all, a memorable day. And C is perfectly fine now, bouncing around with a big smile on her face after a 3 hour nap this afternoon. Happy Easter.

Day 40: Easter Eve

He is risen.

He is risen, indeed.

Thank you for reading this journey with me. I promise it won't be too long before the next post.

Day 39: Good Friday

I heard Bach's St. Matthew's Passion on KUSC on the way home from work today. What an appropriate piece to play on Good Friday. The first section is ominous and dark, haunting voices singing all in E minor, and after five minutes of music, it ends on a surprising E major chord. It shocked me, as I don't regularly listen to this monumental piece. In that moment, I felt just a glimpse of what's to come. You can't understand light unless you've experienced darkness. I think that's what Good Friday means- experiencing darkness even for a semblance of the amount of time that Jesus did on the cross. That E major chord reminded me that in this dark moment, there is hope, that Jesus overcame death and was ultimately triumphant. But it took three days, and this is only the first.

Day 38: Tea Party

C's belly was all red again today. Her teacher at school told me that there are cats around the school yard that may hang out there at night. I wonder if that has something to do with this flare-up. So I guess we are not out of the woods yet, but she is still generally so much better than last week.

Tonight Paul was at a meeting all day so I was working at home in an empty house. Pretty quiet and strange. It is his concert season now - he'll be two trips to the east coast in the next two weeks. Gah. I am rescheduling students left and right and my head is spinning.

The girls played tea party tonight - it was pretty cute.

Day 37: Easter Traditions (or lack thereof)

Having kids, I give all the holidays a little more thought. What do I want them to remember about this holiday when they grow up? What is meaningful about it? What will excite them and make the days and months of an otherwise monotonous calendar year go by with a little more fun?

Easter is always a confusing one for me. I did not grow up with Easter hams and baskets full of candy. I maybe got a chocolate bunny from time to time, but I feel like my sister ate most of them. We dyed eggs once in awhile, but my kids don't yet have the motor skills for that yet. Everywhere I look, there are bunnies and eggs and all this stuff that I feel very little connection to other than the fact that most of it is cute. I told E that this Sunday is Easter Sunday.

She asked, "And what do we do?"
"Well," I said, "We celebrate that Jesus is alive."
She thought really hard about it and then asked, "Do I get a balloon?"

Last year at church, they had balloons for all the kids. She was so excited to get a purple one, her favorite color, but she let go of it by accident while we were walking to the car, and it flew away. I remember that she looked down at her feet to find it. Paul and I chuckled about that, but then she burst into tears like a long-lost relative had died.


Here are the girls on Easter last year - it feels like eons ago. Maybe we'll try to create a new Easter tradition this year.