Valentine's Day

For Valentine's day, Abby and Eliza melted crayon pieces into heart shapes, adhered them to individually made cards and handed them out to their classmates.  They carefully picked out the perfect melted crayon for each friend, based on color preference.  Much time and detail went into these....except the part about including who the Valentines were from!!  My kids didn't care that their friends would never know who had put all that work and effort into their special valentine.  Can't say the same for their mom.  

Grace, who had melted crayon hearts the past three years in a row (I might or might not be obsessed with reusing all those broken crayon pieces!!) made her own Valentines out of some cute foam stickers and doilies.  She came up with some fairly clever little messages.  She's a funny girl, with a great sense of humor.

"I woof you"

"Sending you some puppy love"

"You have to face my puppy love" 

"Thanks for being my friend"  

I really enjoy doing holiday crafts with my kids.  I've been collecting ideas from magazines for years (think Pinterest in a 3-ring binder) and absolutely love going through it with them, and letting them pick out projects.  And since there's really nothing else to keep us busy in mid-winter, we don't hold back with the Valentines projects.  

I do love Valentine's Day.  It comes at a time in the dead of winter when we need to focus on loving something!  And the very candy that drives me batty at Halloween time somehow doesn't bother me in February.  Try to make sense of that!

James spent most of this winter fighting one virus or another.  He is a really pleasant kid as long as he is neither sick nor teething.  His sweet character would surface for a day or two, just in time to head to  storytime at the library or to the rec center for a swim...where he'd catch the next cold (and maybe even the flu--i didn't get him tested) and we'd be home for another week.  It reminded me a lot of Abby's second winter--with one MAJOR difference--Mommy didn't go crazy!  James being sick didn't mean that we ALL had to stay home ALL winter long.  The girls could still go to school/pre-school and I didn't worry endlessly about him getting his 4 month old baby sibling sick--because he doesn't have one!

The only downside was dealing with a very miserable little boy for much of the winter.  He is just not a good sick person.  Especially at night.  This winter I spent many, many sleepless nights with this boy in my bed and Reid in the guestroom.  I honestly didn't mind.  His coughing fits are so heinous, i prefer to have him within arms reach.  And when he wasn't coughing, he'd fall asleep rubbing my shoulder or face.  I'll stay up till 2 am for that anyday!

Keeping him happy during the day was harder. Thank heavens for several silk-lined blankets we have in our house....including this one that he always seems to have when I want to take a picture or when people come over.  I really don't mind that it's pink...it's the embroidered words that make me giggle a bit: "Thank Heavens for Little Girls."

Ah well, we do thank heavens for little girls in this house, but never without remembering this little boy!