Thoughts From the Newsroom

I have been a parent for 16 years, so you would think I would have this Easter egg coloring thing down to a science. Each year I devise a plan that will get this task done with the least amount of clean up and so we will actually have that Martha Stewart type Easter egg breakfast. You know the kind - beautifully decorated eggs, perfect table, children dressed in their Sunday best. This has been a pipe dream of mine that I am now pretty sure will never happen.

My dreams of the perfect Easter celebration were dashed after a traumatic Easter bunny episode my first year as a mom.

I had my husband take my young son out of the house so I could prepare the Easter surprise. I hid baskets, hung plastic eggs around and dressed up as a bunny. I went to the Hollywood Costume shop and got the suit, white makeup, whiskers and fake teeth. It took hours to get the make-up and teeth just right. I looked in the mirror and was certain my son would never recognize me.

Finally my husband brought my little boy into the house. He went crazy, finding baskets full of grapes and tomatoes - remember I was a first-time mom so everything was going to be healthy; no candy for my young child. Then I came out from one of the rooms, where I had been hiding, with a large basket full of toys. My son looked up at me with those sweet trusting eyes, the video camera aimed and ready. I leaned down, waiting for that moment of cuteness every parent waits for, and this time I would get it on film. He took a plastic egg out of his basket and threw it, hitting my plastic teeth, and said "mama."

It was then I realized two things. First, Easter bunny white make-up is extremely itchy. Second, nothing, absolutely nothing, goes the way you plan it when you are a parent.