the SmockLady

Hunka-hunka-burnin’-luv

Published on Thursday, February 14, 2008 some time around 4:45 pm-ish.
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I love my husband oh, so very much. He is the best father in the world to our children. He treats me like a queen. His queen. His bride. He spoils me ridiculously. He definitely puts up with me and my antics (read: hormones). All week long I’ve been finding luv notes on my pillow from him (no, I will not publish them). Today, I got a box of chocolates (not those nasty cheap, last minute sampler kind either), the kind I like - with nuts! from Russell Stover. I got a sweet card with them.

Valentine’s day has never been much for me. I like getting gifts of luv throughout the whole year. I like just being surprised when he thinks about me. That Sonic Cherry Coke he brings me sometimes when he comes home for lunch. Making the bed for me when I am in the shower. Helping with the children when they need it and my hands are full. Being the breakfast guy for the past two years when the pregnancy was kicking my butt and the Bairno does let me sleep - this gives me a bit more time every single morning. I love this man. See. He spoils me.

I have just always looked at Valentine’s Day as a child’s fun day, an excuse to have a party at school. But today that all changed. I do not have a lot of great memories of childhood Valentine’s Days. That is not a bad thing; I don’t have a bunch of bad memories either. I view Valentine’s Day as a day for the greeting card market to make money. I just do not get into the whole hype. This year has been a bit different. All the children had parties, either at school or at Co-Op class. I had written a post about one of those parties, but I decided not to publish it. I was going to rant a bit about an e-mail I got about the Co-Op party. Mostly it was about when, where, and who was coming, but I got very frustrated with the line that said: “No Candy”. What? No candy at a Valentine Party. That has to be a sin. Right? I mean really. I really, really wanted to break that rule. I really, really wanted to give in to my children’s begging about giving candy to their friends. I decided that we are the black sheep of the group already and that I probably did not need to make us any blacker in their eyes. (Seriously, these are the people that think we are heathens for letting our children read Harry Potter. One mother there prays for us daily. One of the children told my son, “J. K. Rowling is a devil worshiper and so is anyone who reads those books!” Today my son took Harry Potter Valentine cards to the party.) And. I was not the only mom who thought the no candy rule was stupid - some of the other students gave out candy with their Valentines. WOOT!

I remember being in school and covering a shoe box with red or white paper and then gluing hearts and paper doilies all over it then cutting a slit in the lid to catch and hold my Valentines. We didn’t have any rules that said you must bring a Valentine for every child in the class. My box was never stuffed full, but it was never empty either. But most of my Valentines were from boys. Hmm. We didn’t have a big party with food and cake or pizza and drinks. Just at the closing of the day we handed out our Valentine’s to those for whom we brought them. We could go to the other classrooms and deliver there too. Today, they bring home lists with every child’s name on it so that no one gets left out and they could only bring Valentines for those children. I get this, I really do (on one level). But what makes any of them special when none of them are? When do these children ever learn to deal with any kind of disappointment? I don’t want my child to be that one who doesn’t get any Valentine’s, but it may happen some day. Princerella has a teacher who has given her a Life skill Award at school twice (one for Courage, and one for Polite) while there are some children in her class who have not yet be given one. Birdie’s teacher will not give a child a second Life Skill Award until every child in her class has been given one (even if they are undeserving) because everyone must be included. Huh? As you can see - I disagree wit this. My point is this: when did Valentine’s Day get so big?

After lunch today I went to the elementary school to help with my second grade daughter’s Valentine’s Day class party. Birdie was so excited I was coming, but she was even more excited to see that Bairno went with me. The party started at 1:30 (although I had to be there at 1:00 to help with preparations) and was timed to be over with the ending of the school day and packing up for carpool and bus loading. The party was going very smoothly until one of the children got sick. YES! And then someone else got sick because the first one got sick on her. And so on. (OK, so only two got sick, but that was 2 too many.) I guess it was just a little too much pizza and candy after a full lunch and a wild recess mixed with passionate anticipation. Either way, two children got sick and I bolted, before I got sick. Yessireebob. I bailed. Real quick like. Birdie, Bairno and I headed down to the Kindergarten hall to get Princerella. We stayed with her for the last four minutes of her party, because they were still partying hard and she was still opening her Valentines. Once it was over we headed to the car to come home. Yay, no carpool line.

When I walked in the door I was greeted with a very clean kitchen (it was not horrible when I left, just not clean). A clean table. A swept floor. And these:

With Valentine’s Days like these I’ll be a convert in no time.

30 Tiny Moments: 11/30
flickr Valentine’s Day Set

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