Happy Easter everyone! No matter what you're doing today I hope you're all having a great day :D I'm so super proud of getting this out today, considering I only started writing it this morning since I may have forgotten about doing anything for you all.. ANYWAYS here's baby Mari with a cutie-patootie Nat and Van and a small snippet of teen Shauna!
(Not pictured: Misty actually sneaking into her easter bunny costume that's genuinely terrifying and ends up scaring all the little ones)
To put it mildly, a lot of the caregivers dreaded Easter morning. No one wanted to be woken up by half a dozen sugar-high toddlers at 6, which was how everyone knew Easter would go. Last year, the first Easter they had all spent back together, Mel had gone barging to Shauna’s room to wake her, which sent Shauna running into Jackie’s room, which created a knockon effect that woke the whole house.
Tai had given everyone strict instructions - no one was allowed to go egg hunting until everyone was awake and ready. Which of course meant that she was prepared for another Christmas morning, where a few little ones had woken up in the early hours of the morning and decided they couldn’t sleep any longer. But of course, her friends loved to throw spanners into whatever planning works she had.
Mari had been a whirlwind all morning - she had woken half the house up just after dawn screeching her head of from her bed, giggling and clapping to herself when Tai had burst into the door. Then, when Tai had asked her questions and questions about what was wrong Mari just looked at her with her big brown eyes and just stared back. Tai had quickly figured out that she had dropped much younger than usual - well, duh -and had tried to settle her back down, Van had come bounding in, demanding to ‘see the baby’.
Naturally Mari has revelled in Van’s attention, babbling and whining like a siren, and Tai had left her in Van’s sticky little hands while she went and saw who else was awake. Laura Lee, bless the kid, was walking up the stairs trying to screw the lid on a sippy bottle filled with water.
“Lot’s awake and I think she’s thirsty. ‘M making her a bottle.”
“Aw, thank you honey. Here, let me help. That one's pretty tricky.”
Tai had helped her screw the lid on and kissed her on her forehead, before sending her off to Lottie’s room. Cooing good morning to Lottie from the door.
She had seen Jackie and Shauna from the hall. Shauna has been looking ready to kill, but Jackie was scratching her back and promising to make her a coffee. Tai decided they probably needed a minute.
Misty was sleeping, or Tai guessed she was. Her door was shut and her lights were all off, so she figured to give her a sleep in. It wouldn’t be long before somebody woke her up anyway.
Akilah and Mel were huddled half asleep by a door, being herded into the bathroom by Gen. Mel was holding a deep red tissue to her nose and Akilah was hovering next to her anxiously, trying to insist she help.
Gen sent Tai a look, and Tai snaked her arm around Akilah’s shoulders, asking her to come do a head count before egg hunting. Akilah tried to hang around a little longer but eventually gave way when Mel started getting a little more panicked.
“Good girl. You excited for the Easter Bunny?”
Akilah nodded and looked up at Tai.
“Can we watch the Yogi Bear Easter? I like that one.”
Tai knew what Akilah was trying to do - her choices often got drowned out by other... louder voices.
“‘Course we can. Do you have it on video?” Akilah hummed and nodded. “Why don’t you go put it on for a bit, watch some before everyone else is down?”
Akilah ran off after that, which left Tai safe to go see Nat. Sometimes she was unpredictable around holidays. No one blamed her of course, but she knew that Nat was very private when she didn’t feel as strong as usual.
Tai was right - Nat was sitting up in bed blinking around, her hair all tousled and her dummy hanging off its clip.
“Morning sleepy girl.” Tai sat on the edge of her bed and opened her arms, inviting Nat in but not forcing her. “Mari wake you up, hey?” Nat nodded and looked at Tai, debating whether to fall into her arms.
“The Easter Bunny's been. Look here.” Tai showed Nat the small basket at the edge of the bed.
Everyone had been unsure of how to do Easter this year. Too much chocolate wasn’t really on the cards, not everyone liked it and Mel and Jackie couldn’t eat a lot of it, so everyone thought it would be a good idea to do an egg hunt but also recreate these cute Easter baskets Jackie had found in a magazine.
They had swapped names a little like a secret Santa, and Nat had scored gold. In her basket was a deck of blank tapes, some nail polish and a cute pair of purple bunny ears. “Look, want to try these on?” Tai picked the ears out and offered them to her. Nat blinked owlishly and nodded, letting Tai put them on her head.
Tai’s heart melted - Nat looked adorable.
“All ready to go look for eggs?” Tai asked. She had probably hurry - she had left Mari and Van alone for long enough, let alone everyone else.
Nat let her wrangle her out of her twisted sheets and walked behind Tai happily. She was just as enamoured with the baby as Van had been, even if she was quieter about it. Nat crawled onto the bed and began to sift through the items Van had brought to Mari for some reason. She settled on the spritzer bottle of hair detangler and sprayed some in her mouth. Van giggled, of course they thought this was a grand game, and tried to copy her.
“Maybe not guys. I don’t know what Mar put in there. I’ll get you both a drink in a second.” Tai held her hand out for the bottle and moved to help Mari sit up. At hearing giggles and action Mari had begun to whine and writhe, no doubt hating that she was missing out on something.
Van grabbed out the ears from Mari’s basket, she had a pair of yellow ones with sparkles in the middle. Very fitting.
“Here Mar. You wear ears too.” Van squished them onto Mari’s head, getting them caught in the knots as they went. Mari squealed indignantly at that, and started to shake her head and paw at Van’s hands. Tai eased them off her head and smoothed back her hair, turning to Van next.
“C’mere.” She pulled Van closer and swept their hair out of their eyes and slipped the ears onto them. “Hop, hop little bunny.”
Van and Nat looked at each other like a lightbulb had gone off in their heads.
“Hop! Hop, hop, hop!” Van parrotted, stomping around the floor. Although Nat stayed quiet she began bouncing on her knees on the bed.
Mari tried to join in too - of course she would - and her babbles varied in tone like a penny whistle.
“Right, right. Hop, hop, hop downstairs you too. Akilah’s downstairs, go sit with her. And no sneaking for eggs!”
They both ran out and Tai turned to Mari.
“You ready to go look for some eggs?” Mari sucked her thumb and grinned toothily at Tai. She stepped up to Mari and hoisted her under the arms. “Up you get babygirl.”
Mari wrapped her legs around Tai’s waist and sighed happily into her neck. “I think you’re going to keep me sane today bubba.”
Tai bounced Mari and grabbed her dummy off the dresser. “Are you ready?” Tai looked down the hall where there were squeals and shrieks, “Let’s go then.”
