I tried to warn Dan. With this being the very first Easter Egg Hunt that he’s attended since Brittain was born I knew he had no idea what to expect. This was the 4th year of Easter Egg Hunts for me and as we drove to Magnolia Farms for Brittain’s class hunt, I wasn’t feeling any less stress than I did the first year. Because you see, when it’s your kid that isn’t aggressive and is the one who is at the back of the “pack” when the teacher says, “GO!” there is a certain amount of apprehension that builds. And let me clarify that this is MY apprehension. Because let’s just be really honest here, is there ANY parent out there who, if when the hunt ended, your child didn’t get any eggs at all WOULDN’T be upset?

This time, I was so thankful that Dan would be experiencing this with me. On the way I began assigning duties. Dan was going to be carrying the baby in the Jeep carrier on his chest and I was going to be in charge of taking pictures. As I told him that his other duty was to help Brittain and make sure she got some eggs, he told me I was ridiculous and Brittain would just get what she got and that would be that.

Eventually, when the hunt finally started, exactly what I expected started to happen. You saw the group of children begin to run to find the eggs. Instead of them spreading out, they ran in herds. And I’ll let you guess who was in the back of that herd. Finally I saw Dan step in. “Brittain, come over HERE!” Even with a baby on his chest he was able to get Brittain to move to a different part of the area where the eggs were hidden. But I saw that she still needed help because by this time other kids had the same idea. Yes, I admit it, I was “that” mom who started picking up eggs for my child…until Dan had to come up and say, “That’s enough.” In the end, Brittain’s final tally was 8 eggs. I survived another year…although I still had the church hunt to get through…

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Dan and I have both done our best to make it so that Brittain doesn’t feel like she is taking a backseat to the new baby. But as we’ve tried to plan outings taking just her without Coleman she quickly informs us that she would rather go out as a family, and that includes bringing Coleman with us.

We took advantage of Dan having the day off by going to the park and having a picnic. It was a wonderful day until Brittain stepped on a stick and it barely brushed up against her leg. But that’s neither here nor there…

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