Sweets for My Sweets

I've been really terrible with updating the blog lately. My time has been occupied by designing baby announcements for two friends, helping my parents remodel their house, and little Alex was quite sick for a week. Luckily, baby is feeling much better and Daddy was out of town so Mommy had a little time to catch up.

Valentine's Day was a lot of fun this year. It was different because there wasn't just two of us anymore and I've always believed that Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate everyone you love and not just your significant other. I guess this started with my mom - she never made a big deal of any holiday besides Christmas and Easter, but Valentines day was the one exception. She would always make us a special breakfast, give us some candy hearts, and maybe a stuffed animal of some sort. I guess she wanted us to know that we were loved.

On V-day morning I woke up early and made fresh cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast - some sweets for my sweets. I let Daddy sleep in and woke him up just before the wonderful aroma of the rolls could waif upstairs and betray my surprise. I gave Daddy his beautiful home made card, compliments of Martha Stewart,

and Baby got a balloon and a little stuffed dog to chew on. He was ecstatic with the balloon. It was so cute to see him squeal and laugh with delight as he wacked it.

Daddy had to study so Baby and I played together and went to the mall for a little shopping. When we got back, we made heart-shaped cookies. We didn't have a ton of frosting left (I used some for the rolls that morning) but they ended up tasting pretty good even if they didn't look very good. Baby got to have his first cookie (and probably his last until his first birthday) and he loved it! I think he ate about half of a huge cookie which lets me know that when he chokes and coughs on peas it's just a farse. I don't want him getting to used to sweets but it was a lot of fun watching him devour the poor unsuspecting cookie.

I also made a romantic old-fashioned note for the blog for Eric - it didn't quite turn out as planned (read the note to find out why) but he loved it anyway.

Eric gave me a beautiful card with the cutest poem on the inside. I couldn't help have tears come to my eyes as I read it and I wasn't sure if it was because I was touched or because I was laughing so hard. Here's what he wrote:

Roses are red, lima beans are a legume,

This poem sounds weird, but let's resume,

Each year our love pumps up the volume,

And never leaves time for any gloom.

This v-day you deserve a new heirloom,

But didn't think you'd just want a new vacuum.

I know my gifts often belong in a tomb,

but this year I didn't want to end up in the emergency room.

Rather than waiting for the impending doom,

I thought I'd let you pick out your favorite perfume.

It's so true. I always give Eric lots of hints about what I want . . . and he never gets it. I think he's too clueless. He always gets me something totally different. For awhile I'd just buy my own gifts and tell him I already got something but I think it hurt his feelings so I stopped. This year he got it right! I mean, I always love what he gets me, but it's not always what I want. If that makes any sense. Talking to other women over the years, I've discovered that this is a common problem.

He didn't get me flowers this year because I asked him not to. I told him instead I wanted to have a nice night out. We got our first non-related babysitter (scary!) and headed out for a night on the town. On the way out I was able to give Eric my last surprise- which he noticed as we were backing out of the driveway. This is what he saw:


I had wanted to say we (heart) you Daddy but I didn't have as much paper as I thought. He liked it anyway. We didn't want to eat out at a fancy, popular restaurant because we know the wait can be horendous. Instead, we headed to one of our quirky little favorites - Simply Thai.

After some yummy curry and peanut satay we headed to another quirky favorite - Murray Arts Center. I love to dance and Eric humors me and the Arts Center is the perfect place to go. They teach you a dance lesson (which Eric really needs - he he) and then you are free to enjoy a big ballroom and a live band playing oldies but goodies. Unfortunately, we found out after we arrived that they had increased the price for the night from $7 per person to $25 per person which wouldn't have really mattered except we knew we could get the exact same thing for a lot less on another night. We decided not to go and resigned ourself to seeing a movie instead. On the way to the theatre, I remembered that there was another dance place we could go - The Organ Loft. I had attended a jazz concert there once and I remember my musician friend telling me they had dancing there on the weekends. We called them up and sure enough - they were having a Valentine's dance. It wasn't the same as the Murray Arts Center - it was a lot smaller and there were a lot more old people. However, they did have a cute little live band and it had a certain quaint charm to it.

We had a lot of fun making a fool of ourselves didn't worry about what other people thought and almost enjoyed watching the elderly couples dance even more. We made friends with a sweet couple who were 82 years old but could really shake it up! I just hope that Eric and I can stay as in love as this couple had for over fifty years. So the night ended not quite as I had imagined it but it was magical and will stay in my memory forever.