After we arrived home on Saturday from Hawaii, my husband went shopping and got eggs and a dye kit. He hard boiled 48 eggs, and put four broken ones away for eating. During the 2-year-old’s nap, the older kids decorated the 44 remaining eggs with the dye, stickers, and a shaving cream concoction that my husband said he learned from Martha Stewart (I kid you not).
The number 44 is important for this story. Late on Saturday night, the Easter Bunny came and hid all 44 decorated eggs in the kitchen and the living room. The Easter Bunny knows not to venture outside those rooms, as it raises the possibility of disaster. The kids woke up bright and early on Sunday and began the hunt. They were largely successful, finding 43 eggs. But largely is not the same as totally, and when we’re talking a food item, this was going to be a problem. The Easter Bunny hid things well! I looked and my husband looked and we could not find the missing egg.
So we steeled ourselves for discovering it when it started to rot and smell. But, early this morning when the 2-year-old was up and bounding around, he took the remote control and hid it under the couch. My husband, who was “up” with him (which I suspect means sleeping on the couch, which is how the 2-year-old got control of the remote in the first place) hunted around for it. While he was digging under 
the couch he found dust bunnies and…Eureka! A slightly smushed, hidden egg.
It was no longer safe to eat of course, but at least it was no longer missing. Perhaps the Easter Bunny needs a slightly different system next year.
In other news: Easter wound up being a partial extra Mommy day for my daughter and me. After two surgeries, her eye alignment still isn’t right. We have started seeing a new set of doctors at Johns Hopkins who specialize in her condition. Johns Hopkins is in Baltimore, which is two hours away. So Sunday evening she and I drove down, stayed in the Sheraton by the convention center, and had a late dinner together. In the morning, the hotel restaurant had pancake lollipops for breakfast, which was a big hit. Then we drove over to the hospital and dealt with that fun: more eye exams, the dilating drops, etc. The current verdict is that we are watching and waiting; her far-sightedness helps her pull her eyes together, even though they naturally drift out, as she tries to compensate. But over time that far-sightedness might go away and then she’ll need another surgery to correct the drift. Then it was back in the car for the two hour drive home. She was pretty good about the car trips. At one point (when her Kindle battery was drained) she decided to tell me the plots of Moana and Frozen, and sing the songs from the movies. This was not the executive summary; we got scene by scene outlines. But hey, it filled the time.
Photos: Egg missing, egg found.
I hate to hear your daughter is having trouble. But, I will tell you I found the best invention at Target. A charge bank. We have a lot of long car trips and have found that tablets keep everyone occupied and the fighting to a minimum. Problem is batteries die and no car manufacturer has realized I need more charging stations than cup holders. This little bank gets charged up and when their tablet begins to die they plug it in and keep on going. Everyone in the world may know about these, but me, but I almost exclusively shop from home so I don’t alway know the latest and greatest. These have been a life saver!
We are *still* missing an egg, alas. This is a small house. Where could it be?
Best wishes for a speedy resolution of the eye trouble.
@Jamie- In our case, I don’t think the Easter Bunny hid the egg under the couch. I think she/he hid it next to a nearby table and it rolled.
One missing egg was a family tradition growing up. Not on purpose, but some of the funniest stories I remember from holidays was how my dad would always stump us on one egg and, also, eventually stump himself when we couldn’t recall where he put it. The would always eventually led us to the place! Maybe not so fun during the actual event, but a happy, funny memory now.