The missing blue egg

Saturday night after dinner, our little family of 3 (soon to be 4) sat down at the table to dye some Easter eggs. I'm not sure if this was a tradition that you had as a child, but every single year my family colored at least a dozen eggs; usually each kid got their own dozen. Good thing we all like hard boiled eggs.

So Derek and I have continued this tradition with Addison. Derek had prepped the table, laying down butcher paper and colorful bowls for each of the colored dyes; Addison has a collection of colorful plastic bowls, so each color had its corresponding color bowl. When Addison decided to join the operation, Derek was just beginning to pour water on the dye tablets... that's when the fun started.

The very blue tongue

As I don't remember dying eggs when I was 2, I can't tell you what it looks like from Addison's perspective. I have learned though, that the dye tablets look a little bit like sweet-tart candies. You might wonder how I learned this... well, the hard way of course. In the 2 seconds that Derek and I were looking at the table and not watching Addison with eagle eyes, she apparently snatched up one of the dye tablets that hadn't been covered in water and vinegar yet, and popped it into her mouth. I can only assume she thought it was a candy (she had been to an Easter egg hunt earlier in the day so is well aware of what candy looks like).

Well, we didn't realize she had done it until she said,
"eww! yuck!" and started to spit it back out. We looked up to see her drooling royal blue from her mouth down her chin onto her shirt and the table. Panic set in - Derek scooped her up and held her over the sink so as to contain the spreading blue mess and hopefully reduce the amount she ingested; I ran to the egg dye package to confirm that the dyes are nothing but concentrated food coloring and not poisonous at all. Thankfully they are harmless and the only warning on the package is to watch out for choking if ingested.

Addison coloring a green egg

In our haste to wash her off, we did not stop to grab the camera, so the only pictures we have of the truly deep dark blue pouring out of her mouth are mental pictures. The others came after the panic and don't go very far to show quite how vivid the colors were; you'll have to use your imagination. But even after numerous rinses with water and some scrubbing of her chin and neck, she continued to have a very blue mouth and a rather blue-ish tinge to her face for the rest of the night. Thankfully that was the extent to the concern, and we did get back to dying eggs pretty quickly, which Addison really enjoyed (once she figured out it wasn't for eating).

Needless to say, we don't have any blue Easter eggs this year.

Happy Easter!