happy post-Valentine's Day!

This is our little lovebug, posing for the Valentine's pictures we'll be sending to some family members shortly. Of late, she has started pretending. This might be more effective if she did not immediately crack up giggling after making sad faces at herself in the mirror. I think I could actually bounce a quarter off her lower lip when she practices pouting. She makes ridiculous faces whenever I pull out a camera, and she prides herself on the cheesy smile she gives me when I get out of the car every morning. This photo is her "surprised" face, which she makes when I sneak up on her with the camera, even though she is not genuinely surprised.

Yesterday, her daycare had a Valentine's party at the end of the day. We managed to come by a little earlier than usual to pick her up (more snow, roads getting bad, bosses willing to let us go at 4:15) and witness the spectacle of sheer toddler sugar greed. To which the children appeared to react differently, largely along gender lines.

Our bug and another little girl stood, calmly snacking in the middle of the chaos. Both girls were surrounded by a flurry of little boys. The boys alternately threw their valentine art projects across the room, brought me stuffed animals and books for my approval, ran into my legs, searched for their own parents, and bonked into the two little girls like agitated molecules before bouncing off in other directions. If summed up, their attitude was approximately: "Yay! Sugar! Yay! Art stuff! Yay! Extra mommies! [smack] uh-oh. Okay! Um, where's my mom and dad? Never mind! More sugar!"

The little girls came over, gave me hugs, then wandered back to the snack table for frosted cookies and Sun Chips. Their attitude was vaguely teenage, roughly, "Well, something different is happening. I guess that's okay. I was bored anyway. Are there more chips?"

I cooked a special meal with all-new recipes last night for us after the bug went to bed, and it turned out pretty darn well. We'll be having a date night later, but didn't want to go out on Valentine's Day because it was just too complicated. So, a little homemade romance was created instead.