Two years ago, we took Robbie on the Odyssey Easter brunch cruise around Boston Harbor for his first Easter.  We had done it twice before; once the year we were planning to move to Boston and again when I was pregnant with Robbie.  The picture from Robbie’s first Easter remains one of my favorites.  We are in front of the boat with the Easter bunny.  Justin is, of course, standing uncomfortably close to the rabbit – he may actually have his arm around him; Robbie and I are on the other side, about a foot away from the beast.  Robbie has said, more than once, “Daddy.  Easter bunny.  Good friends.” when looking at the picture.

I was hoping for nothing less for this year’s family Easter picture.  And I was rewarded.

What you may not be able to tell from the picture is that young Robert has a death grip on my neck and his knees are pinned to my sides in case I manage to untangle myself from his grasp.  He refused to even look in the direction of the Easter bunny, turning his head away any time I tried to get him to say hello.  You’ll also notice that Justin continues to stand awkwardly close to the Easter bunny.

Fear not.  We did get a good picture with the bunny.  My child may be many things, but a fool he is not.  The Easter bunny came to our table once we set sail.  With candy.  After that, Robbie was happy to stand with the pink-eyed rendition of the Easter bunny to have his picture taken.

Being the excellent and organized mother that I am, I figured it would be best to let Robbie decorate his first Easter egg on a boat in the middle of Boston Harbor.  Actually, I had totally forgotten about dying eggs until I saw the table at brunch, but telling the truth about that would just make me sound like a terrible mother.  Given that the boat was virtually empty, Robbie got to dye two eggs and later learned the intricacies of eating a hard boiled egg (which he hated).

We did manage to have a little bit of an Easter egg hunt later in the afternoon (yes, afternoon; I am fully aware that my child is in his pajamas).  It was thrown together last-minute after I got home from church, but Robbie’s young enough that he doesn’t know that.  In fact, he still thinks it’s pretty incredible that he got an Easter basket at all.  I’ll enjoy that freedom while I can…  I’m sure it’s not going to last much longer.