Easter and 18 Months Old

"Okay, now I get it. The Easter Bunny is okay, and Easter eggs are fun. But Easter's not about that stuff...It's all about God's son."

Happy Easter from the Petersen's!
This year Easter was all new! Connor woke up to goodies galore! A bouncy ball with Chuggington, a Mickey Mouse plush in a zippered egg, and a great basket. As he picked through his goodies he found his favorite. The Easter Bunny brought him fruit bites!!! Haha! Better than any candy, this little boy goes gaga for fruit bites. Clever, clever bunny! How did he know?


The most anticipated part of the day was the Easter Egg hunt. Of course there were eggs in perfect places for Connor and we wanted to see just what he would do with them. As the door opened and Connor-boy ran out, basket in hand, he went straight for the eggs.....and chucked them! Granted a few went in the basket, but it was much more fun to throw them on top of the trampoline. When we finally convinced him to put them in the basket, he found a thrill in dumping the lot wherever he could. It was hysterical. I can't get enough of this little boy. Grandma Glenda gave him a basket with goodies, but hers included chocolate. Boy does she spoil him, and let's not forget the new Fisher-Price lawn mower that didn't quite fit in the basket.

Easter is always such a wonderful holiday. As Pastor Thompson said at church it's like the Superbowl or World Series for Christians. It is so much more than the baskets, chocolate, and eggs it is the reason that we can have hope for a tomorrow. Because of the resurrection we know that our Messiah lives, and He offers everyone the same.
We went to WDW over Spring Break and purchased three day passes, but only used 2 of the days. This brings us to our spontaneous-middle-of-the-week-why-not trip of 2012. We had to use the tickets before they expired, it's only getting hotter, and Connor turned 18 months old. PERFECT reasons, I tell you! Perfect! We started our day at Animal Kingdom, and Connor loved it. We did the safari first, saw the bird show and Nemo, and even had lunch with the characters at Tusker's!
We were a little apprehensive about how Connor would react to the characters. He has had a few meltdowns in the past around them, but this time was different. He was in awe the moment he saw them. He would point at them and try talking to them as they were visiting other tables, and when they approached ours his eyes would get really big and he'd just stare. It was as if "wow, are you really here?". Mickey happened to put his hand on Connor's head, and it was precious because he didn't know what to do. I tried to take pictures but he wouldn't move his head, only his eyes to the camera. Like he didn't want to move or else Mickey might move his hand. Now upon showing the pictures to Connor, he is still just as excited about seeing them. He even waves and says "Hi Mickey" to the picture.
He decided to sit right down in the middle of Main Street USA to enjoy his view of the balloons. It was just so sweet, and I just snapped away!

What was so special about this trip was the amount of rides we got to go on with him. This was a Disney trip that was truly all about him. There wasn't a single big kid ride to be ridden. He soaked it all up and loved every bit of it. We did the Carousel, Small World, Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, Tea Cups, and Dumbo....just to name a few. The squeals of delight that rang out from him will forever be in my heart. Tim said that this ranks up with one of his favorite trips to Disney....ever!

Spring has brought such fun into this household. We had a trip to the zoo with Grandma Glenda where Connor became the desire for lunch for a very energetic female lion. That was a very fun trip, he's finally able to enjoy it. He also got to play some soccer on the UM soccer field. We went down to watch a game because of Aunt Ashley and Uncle Jason. Uncle Jason gets to coach the team, and Connor had fun scoring some goals. Like always, life keeps moving forward. I cannot believe he is a year and a half already. We are in awe of him, and he really is wonderful.