How To Tye Dye Your Kid

Step 1: Decide that every kid, regardless of age, should get to dye Easter Eggs.
Step 2: Search vainly for "Shake an Egg", give up and just buy the plain old Paas dyes.
Step 3: Wisely decide to only hard boil 6 eggs and use 4 of the 9 colored dye tabs.
Step 4: Place vinyl mat on floor, wish it was bigger. Set bowl of eggs out along with dyes.
Step 5: Strip child to diaper. Briefly consider putting baggies on hands, but realize it will only cause a tantrum. Have Dad get video camera.
Step 6: Place child on mat, get egg dipper, and demonstrate how to dunk eggs.
Step 7: Watch as child throws dipper out of her way, and begins plunking her hands into the dye.
Step 8: Hand child an egg, and encourage her to plunk it into the dye.
Step 9: See the glee in child's eyes as she realizes that a) eggs break when dropped into the dye, and b) that the dye splashes out of the cups.
Step 10: Witness the child's shreiks of joy as she rubs her hands into the spilled dye and begins rubbing it all over her chest.
Step 11: Repeat steps 8-10.
Step 12: Look on in horror as child grabs one of the now broken, half dyed eggs and begins smashing it to bits and googing the yolk through her little blue & purple fingers.
Step 13: Spring into action with Clorox wipes as the multi colored kid takes her show on the road by first kneeling in the spilled purple, and then walking through the teal and running around on the mat and then the white kitchen floor.
Step 14: Call it a holiday and have Daddy dump "Rainbow Bright" in the bath while you begin damage control in the kitchen.
Step 15: Give up after 15 minutes of scrubbing.
Step 16: Admire the 5 remaining poor splotchy, ugly, cracked eggs with love and pride, the way only a Mother looking at her child's first art project can.

Check www. jeffandmichelle.net for more egg dying pix and the upcoming holiday!