Not crazy about this Easter egg hunt thing!

A couple of weeks ago, we took our son, Keegan, to an Easter egg hunt that the city was hosting. We were intrigued to see how he would respond to all the kids, the eggs, and the giant Easter Bunny. Keegan is 15 months old. He's been walking since 10 months, so he is relatively adept at getting around at this point -- except of course when he is tired which is when he looks like a tiny drunk man stumbling about moments away from some head-first plunge into the coffee table, floor or wall. From about 4 months old, Keegan has had an obsession with wheels. Some friends of ours (the Fritchman's or Fritchmen -- however you pluralize that), gave him a bulldozer when we brought him home. At four months, he could care less that a bulldozer could be used to plow into things and move them around. All he wanted to do was flip it over and spin the wheels. Which we did regularly for the next 8 months. What does this have to do with an Easter egg hunt?

Well, this obsession with wheels has grown. It's like any addiction really. You build a tolerance. Hot Wheels cars don't do it for him any more though. Larger Tonka bulldozers don't faze him either. He's moved up to full-size tires now. He can't walk past a car and not reach out to touch the tires on it. We're saving money to send him to a clinic for his addiction -- one of those where you have to shave your head bald, get a tattoo and forego undergarments to gain access.

Back to the Easter egg hunt -- this will all come together, I promise. So we arrive and get out of the car. But I made the mistake of putting Keegan down in the parking lot. Yes, I am an enabler! First thing he does is start touching the tires on the adjacent car. But that's not enough. He has to touch all four tires. At 15 months, he's figured out that every car has 4 wheels -- and they must ALL be touched. But we're here for the egg hunting and cute moments of toddlers falling all over themselves in search of candy representative of the Resurrection of Christ! SO I pick him up. Fit ensues. I persevere. Wiggling kid in tow. I put him down on the grass closer to the nice petting zoo set up by the city -- because what is more symbolic of the Risen Lord than penned rabbits, a baby goat and a rooster? When I put Keegan down, he just stood there. Angry. Angry that I had deprived him of the full enjoyment of running his hand across radial tires. And maybe a bit unsettled by all the commotion of expectant kids cornering barnyard animals. Whatever he was feeling, it was captured in the above photo. Priceless.

As for the hunt itself, like many things that parents await with anticipation, the result was rather anti-climactic. The hunt was scheduled for 10:00 to 12:00. We arrived at 10:00. Unbeknownst to us, the hunting would not commence until 11:00. So we had to kill an hour. We played on the playground. Walked on the trail. Walked up and down the bleachers -- which was very exciting when we realized that by stomping, we could make a lot of noise on the metal bleachers. After an hour though, Keegan was wiped out and ready for a nap. Oh, there will be no napping. We came out here to gather eggs. You will hunt eggs son. So, we lined up with the other parents along the right-field line of the baseball field set aside for kids under 2. On the signal, we walked in search of our bounty. "Disinterested" doesn't describe how little Keegan could have cared about this thing at this point. We walked away with 4 plastic eggs -- and 2 of those ended up in our basket because a little girl didn't realize which basket she was using. Three of the eggs didn't even have candy in them. They were filled with plastic gold coins. What's the message there? Are you calling my kid Judas? "No sir. Those are the eggs with the plastic silver coins." Is this some sort of prosperity gospel message? Believe and you will find gold coins laying about the local ball fields. OK -- that was a bit cynical.

All in all, the morning was fun if for no other reason than it gave us a great story to tell about Keegan's first Easter egg hunt. It also gave us that great picture. And I am sure there will come a time in the not-so-distant future when I will be wishing for the days when he could care less about all the stuff that comes with the holidays.