Valentine's Day Reality Check

Here's a tip for you: If you want to have a quaint time with your kids making Valentines by the fire like in Olden Times, don't give your kids Blow-Pops the size of their heads beforehand, and don't--I repeat, don't-- attempt to put a fair-weather-potty-goer like Charlie in big-boy underpants while making these Valentines. And unless you are just insane, and asking for all kinds of trouble, DO NOT try to make dinner while all this is going on.

The scene I pictured in my head when I did my Valentine's Day Craft Research and found a fairly simple Valentine for us to make did not quite happen last night. Instead there was a lot of yelling and jumping and peeing on things. The Valentines turned out okay...mostly because I was furiously gluing hearts and leaves onto lollipops after the kids went to bed, hoping to finish everything before Project Runway started last night.

Today when I was distributing Valentines into the cubbies of Charlie's classmates, I discovered that overnight most of the hearts had come un-glued from their lollipops. That means most of the kids will get random lollipops with sad little construction paper leaves glued on from some anonymous kid. Through the process of elimination, the moms of Charlie's classmates will probably figure out that Charlie is responsible for the deconstructed flower Valentines. I'm sure it will be apparent to the moms of these kids that Charlie, though he is brilliant in so many ways, is not capable of cutting out leaves and gluing them onto lollipop sticks. It will probably also be apparent to the other moms that I, while somewhat competent at many things, am not so good at the crafts. So much for all my Martha Stewart fantasies of impressing everyone with my homemade Valentines. Next year sign me up for those Dora and Bob the Builder valentines from Target. This mommy has better things to worry about.

Here's wishing you a happy Valentine's Day filled with lots of store-bought goods and glue-free surfaces!

Love,

Me