Alright, let's conclude my posts about Valentines. In the spirit of saving the best for last, this post is about my Loves, Max, Otto, Wren. And my original Love, Joe.
The sentiment of Valentine's is a little different for me each year, yet provides excitement regardless.
When I was younger it was a mix of hearts-a-flutter in love (in fatuation?) excitement and "Who needs boys when you have the best friends in the world?" yin and yang. It was getting up the courage to send a candy-gram to my crush of the week (and not receiving one in return). It was wearing head to toe pink and red to school along with my girlfriends. It was "Focusing on St Patrick's Day" one year when a friend of mine and I both had no Valentine to speak of so we focused our efforts on the upcoming St Patrick's holiday that is both platonic and fun (anyone can claim "Kiss Me I'm Irish").
Fast forward to this year's Valentine's where the sentiment for me was all about showing my kids how much I adore them and (trying to) surprise Joe in little ways how much I love him. Additionally, I'm hoping to instill in my kids an appreciation for this holiday where showing your love is paramount and wearing hearts is not only acceptable but appreciated.
As it turns out - I'm not surprised - the boys loved their special Valentine's lunch. What is surprising is that I think Max liked the plastic, compartmentalized Ziploc container that I put his special lunch items in even more than the treats I packed. Following dinner last night we had a special dessert, too. The boys got to dip strawberries and bananas in chocolate fondue. Oh, the little things! They highly enjoyed this treat. And Max was pretty quick to realize that "This dessert is a little healthy and a little not-so-healthy." Yep, they polished off a couple bananas and a lot of berries for their dessert.
I ended up giving the kids (really, Max & Otto) a book called "We Belong Together" that I had forgotten to give them at their "Better Together" birthday party. It's a book that shows a bunch of pairs that go together (cookies & milk, hot cocoa & marshmallows, etc). It was super cute, because as they were looking through it, I said "You know what else goes together...Max & Otto!" And Max said, "No. Max, Otto AND Wren!" So glad he always remembers her, and so glad he didn't feel constrained by the structure of the book to limit himself to just pairs of things that go together.
Joe and I don't get each other big gifts for Valentine's, but I still wanted to surprise him with something special. His favorite cookies are Peanut Butter Kisses, so when I saw the Peanut Butter "Heart" Kiss cookies I figured I'd make them and surprise him with a baggie of them when we were at lunch with Wren on Valentines. However, on Valentine's Eve he was cleaning up some of his emails and saw a picture I had taken of a whole tray of those cookies earlier in the day. He smiled at me, showed me the image on the iPad and asked "Where are all these?" Darnit. How did you find that picture I asked? I deleted it (in order to post pics on the blog, it's easiest if I send them to Joe's Gmail account). He said I need to delete the deleted emails...
The kids "made" Joe some Almond Butter as a little gift. At the Co-Op you can grind your own nut butters and Max had asked awhile ago to make some, to which I told him it would be a great little present for Daddy for Valentine's to show him we love him. Last Friday we all went to the Co-Op and ground some Almonds for Joe. I thought for sure Max would be too excited to tell Joe about making the butter to wait til Valentine's. We went all weekend without him mentioning it. Then Valentine's morning Joe walks out to the kitchen where Max, Otto and I were eating breakfast and Max says "Open your present. Me, Otto and Wren made you Almond Butter! It's really good, too. We had some for lunch the other day."
XOXO!
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