Happy Valentine's Day!

 

I can't believe that Valentine's Day is already here again. It seems like just yesterday I was sending the leftover, uncompleted Valentine cards to daycare with Greyden instead of the stack that I had spent an hour painstakingly filling out. I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that I managed to bring the correct Valentines this year (as are his teachers I'm sure), so at least I'm not "that" mom that expects the daycare providers to fill them out for me (again). Not only that, I brought them to daycare yesterday because I just KNEW that I'd forget them this morning. Kind of like I forgot to dress Greyden in red this morning. And also like I forgot to wrap the shoebox that I brought in last week for him to decorate as his Valentine's mailbox. Seriously, I swear that all daycares exist solely to test me on my (lack of) parenting skills.

  

Valentine's Day tends to be a bit like Groundhog's Day at our house, meaning that every year Kevin and I have pretty much the same conversation. This year, our Annual Valentine's Day Discussion took place yesterday on our way to get Junior from daycare. It's never exactly the same, but this will give you a general idea of the content: 

Me: It's Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Him: You didn't get me anything, right?

Me: Of course I got you something. And I can't WAIT to give it to you because you're going to LOVE it.

Him: Whatever. You did not. Did you? No, I know you didn't. But that doesn't matter, because you do this on every holiday and it's the reason I go out and spend way too much money buying you expensive gifts at the last minute, while I get nothing in return.

Me: LIAR! (Sidenote: This may have happened once or twice - and thank you for the new camera lens for Christmas honey! I hope you enjoy your......snow.....)

Since Kevin just happens to be right (obviously for the first time ever), I'm hoping that these adorable pictures of his son will suffice as the best Valentine's Day presents ever. 

Besides not doing Valentine's Day gifts, in the past we've also always opted to skip the romantic dinners in fancy restaurants, mainly because we don't want to deal with tons of people (or maybe it's because neither of us have ever remembered to make a reservation). Nor do I have a special, homemade dinner planned. (I was actually thinking pizza for delivery?) As far as I can remember, the most we have ever done is hit up our local Buffalo Wild Wings. There's a slight possibility that could happen tonight as well, although Junior tends to put a damper on all things food related lately. Yesterday after daycare, we tried to feed him dinner which resulted in approximately 40 straight minutes of screaming. He wouldn't go into his booster seat to save his life, and once we finally managed to pin him in there, he refused to eat anything and instead opted to throw it all on the floor. Yes, the dogs were beyond thrilled. It was well over an hour before we even attempted to feed him dinner for the second time. While I'm pretty sure that BWW won't be the busiest place on earth tonight (reservations are probably not required), even they don't have the time or patience to watch us fight with the kid for an hour to get him to eat.

When you have a picky toddler, you'll read a lot of articles that say it helps if you get them involved with their food. For example, start a garden so that the child can see where the food comes from. Then they'll be more likely to eat it if they help to grow the food themselves.

(Hockenberry version: Open a bag of lettuce and let Junior play with it)

Let them help with the preparation of dinner. They'll be more likely to eat it if they helped make it.

(Hockenberry version: Let Junior smush the lettuce in his hands and push the salad spinner button. See the big knife on the counter? Yes, he tried to use that at one point too.)

Let the child help with cleanup when dinner is over.

(Hockenberry version: Before dinner even starts, put all of the lettuce back into the bowl when Junior pulls the lid off before it stops spinning).

There is a very remote possibility that we may let Greyden help with our Valentine's Day dinner tonight (by opening the pizza box lid), but I would be much more willing to bet that we'll be waiting to have our romantic Valentine's Day dinner until Junior's in bed for the night.

Have a great Valentine's Day!