Angela went on vacation to Boston with Jen this weekend, so I had Aila all to myself for three days. Aila is absolutely crazy about ducks, so before Angela left, she bought a new toy duck and six plastic easter eggs. On the morning of Easter Sunday, I set up a special Easter egg hunt for Aila.

After breakfast, she located the first egg in the hallway, and followed the trail into the family room. Aila carefully inspected each egg, including figuring out how to take the yellow one apart. Once inside the family room, the trail of eggs led around the corner of the ottoman, where the duck was waiting to be discovered. After Aila rounded the corner, she looked up and shouted: "Duck!" Then she raced over as fast as she could and gave the duck a big hug.

In other news, I think "duck" is Aila's first word. She only uses it when she sees a yellow bird of any type (except for Big Bird), and she also uses it when she sees real ducks down by the river. Well, she might also use it when she is really excited, so perhaps the sight of ducks just instantly boosts her excitement level to maximum.

I took a video of Aila's first Easter egg hunt, but due to operator error I missed the climax of the hunt where she actually spotted the duck.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 38mm, ISO 800, f/2.8 for 1/50th of a second.