Easter 2009: Easter pics

Aunt Leah and Uncle Chris got up at 4 something Saturday morning and made their way up to Dallas as the sun rose, determined not to miss any of the fun we might have had later that morning. We had planned on taking Alex to get his picture taken with live bunnies at NorthPark Center by a professional photographer, a little Easter event that the mall holds every year, perhaps for those folks who go to the Arboretum and find out that no one is there to take pictures with the Easter Bunny. To be frank, I think that getting professional pictures of A with a skinny, sweaty teenager in a bunny costume with dirt on the knees is a little cornball anyway, and that Easter pictures with live bunnies is a much cuter and slightly less corny Easter tradition.

Being that it was the last day for pictures with the bunnies and the fact that we were running a bit late, I was sure that the line from the photog booth would wind through the mall, out the door, and extend around the building three times when we finally showed up to get Alex's name on the list. There was a small gathering of people around the booth, but certainly not the mob scene I was preparing myself for. We added Alex to the list, and about two hours later, after Alex had petted the stunt double bunnies and walked around the mall with Leah and Chris and ate some snacks, it was his turn.

I was convinced that Alex would end up manhandling those poor, sweet bunnies considering his past experiences with live creatures (remember this and this?). And as the photog handed Alex the fragile little bunnies, scenes from Of Mice and Men flashed in my mind. But apparently all the coaching we've done to keep Alex from ripping Murphy's ears off had an effect on him because he was just as gentle and sweet as he could be with those bunnies, and as a result, we got some seriously cute pics.

Is it just me, or does he look a lot older than twenty-one months old, posing like a big boy? Twenty-three months, at least. Aside from him maiming and/or murdering those innocent little bunny rabbits, my other concern was that he would be so enamored with the bunnies that we wouldn't get any pics of him actually looking at the camera. But clearly, the photog had done this a time or two before and knew how to get his attention. What the photog probably didn't bank on was when he tossed Alex a wooden egg to hold on to and Alex immediately hurled it back at him at no less than warp speed. Luckily they were wooden eggs and not real ones. Well, maybe not so lucky for the photog, who probably ended up with a big welt where that wooden egg hit him.

We waited another hour before we were allowed to edit the pictures and pick the ones we wanted to buy. Alex was an angel the whole two-and-a-half hours we were there, despite being hungry and tired and sick of the mall. We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen afterwards, where Alex continued to be a goof and a showoff before we headed back home so he (we) could nap and prepare for Easter.