The Easter Basket

Having an almost-four-year-old daughter awards me the amazing priviledge of being able to relive my own childhood.  The beauty of being the parent in this relationship, is that I can provide all the fun "things" that I remember as well as try to offer "things" I wanted but didn't have.  

Today I was taking my weekly stroll through my local Target and was immediately sucked in by the dollar bins.  Now that Nat and I spend MUCH more time together, I am always looking for inexpensive ways to occupy the mind of a little girl and for a buck how can I say no?  Currently said bins are filled with materials to create Easter baskets.  Normally, I am not one to make a basket, Natalie+Candy=Frustrated Mommy,  but I thought maybe just a little bucket filled with some stickers, hairbands, and the like would be harmless, the little girl in me told me so.

So I find some stickers and hairbands and think to myself, Maybe I will just include one traditional piece of candy.  Jellybeans!  Mind you, I was looking for the tiniest bag of jellybeans I could find, the kind that is in the carrot-shaped plastic bag- one that is NOT attached to a stuffed animal or some other little toy; I just wanted the pure simple joy of jellybeans.  No luck.  Peeps!  Again, I want a little box with, like, two Peeps.  Not only could I not find anything but the bulk Peep - honestly, how many does a person need?  But where are the yellow Peeps?  Green, purple, bright pink...this is not the way I remember it.  Then I see it, PER-FECT...Pez.  It is a toy and a tiny little candy all at once.  I stared off in a daze as a montage of all my past Pez dispensers played in my head.  I am genius; she will LOVE it!  

I looked through the pile for one that was not too "eastery".  Something that would be less holiday and more just because everyone should experience the fun of Pez.  My eyes landed upon a little lamb, for my little lamb.  Then I saw it.  The tiny package of brown Pez. Huh?  Chocolate Pez?  (slow motion) Noooooooooooo!  Orange Pez, Strawberry Pez that it is the way it was meant to be.  THAT is the way it was when I was a kid! 

I did not buy this for her.  I refuse to taint the purity of Pez in a world where so many things are already wrong that I am unable to control.  And this, my friends, is why I shouldn't have made a basket to begin with.