I love, love. I really do. I love pink. My favorite color since birth. I like red. I love hearts, diamonds, flowers, and chocolate. I like babies in gold diaper covers with a bow and arrow. I just don't really like Valentine's Day.
I don't like crowds. I don't like 'special' menus. I don't like people telling me that Valentine's Day is the day for my husband and kids to show me how much they love me. Because, inevitably, I've built up this fantastic, romanticized idea of how Valentine's Day will go, and then am disappointed.
Honestly, I'm a really lucky girl. Barry is thoughtful, and considerate, and kind 364 days out of the year. The one day he's not? V-day.
This weekend Barry painted my family room. He did all the prep work, all the painting and all of the clean up. Happy Valentine's Day to me. It looks WONDERFUL! The family room was an awful cream sponge paint. It was Ug-to-the-ly. Now? It looks fresh, clean and modern. Not like 1990 threw up on my family room.
Before:
(Excuse the mess, this was moving days)
After:
A vast improvement, yes?
Yesterday, Julian had his Valentine's Day party at school. I didn't go. I had the other boys and well, it just didn't seem like a fun time to go to the preschool for 20 mins to wrestle Gabe, and lug Owen's heavy car seat around. I feel bad, but what are you going to do?
Instead, Gabe and I snuggled on the couch and watched his new favorite show, The Baby Show as he calls it. We call it Rugrats. Yep, Rugrats. The same show from our childhood. The same wonderful animation, the same mispronounced words from the babies. It's GREAT! Both boys, in fact, love it. Yesterday we watched an episode called Chuckie vs. the Potty. And guess what? We recreated that episode.
We'll call it Gabe vs. the Frog. His potty chair is a frog. And for MONTHS he has said he's scared of the frog. We've had maybe one, or two successes. Yesterday we took off his diaper and let him run free. He hated it. But he did pee on the frog! Yay! Here's to hoping he'll be potty-learned someday in the not too distant future.
After Barry came home, we had yummy red & white heart shaped ravioli. Thank you Costco. The boys, who for some reason despise ravioli, had heart shaped pasta from Cost Plus World Market. Julian ate 2 plates! This is remarkable because he doesn't eat. Ever.
We then went to Costco where the boys were pretty awful. And whiny. And wanted to eat the Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches we bought right.now.Mommy. Oy. And then on the way home, Owen was STARVING. We've never before fed that baby, or so you'd think.
Pretty much my prestigious Valentine's Day was just like any other day. Except I was disappointed. Disappointed because I built up this romance, this idealistic day. One in which Barry brought me home See's Dark Chocolate, some pretty yellow roses or lilies, and a large Diet Dr. Pepper from McDonald's (Hey it's only $1). None of that happened. Yesterday I was pretty bummed. Today, I'm less bummed, but curious.
We are supposed to be examples to our children of healthy relationships. We are supposed to be the ones that teach them how to treat others, and be a model for a married couple. Do I forsake Valentine's Day, and teach my children that? No. Because the likelihood of them (all 3 of them) meeting someone in the future that hates V-day? Not so good. Should I buy my own Valentine's so I'm not forgotten? What should I do? And really, I'm not trying to be whiny because I didn't get anything. I'm honestly and truly curious.
