Head Over Heels

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm sort of head over heels when it comes to love and hearts and lacy doilies. And when given the chance to cut out hundreds of lovely reminders of just how much this family means to me?

I'll jump on it, so look out because there will surely be a frenzy of scrap paper flying around as we shape our hearts and snip our cards and trim each love note until they've been carved into Valentine's Day perfection.

Then we might even feel compelled to string them up, so that there is literally a shower of 'love' raining down upon us right in our very own living room.

Yep, just another afternoon of homework and snack time for us.

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but Saoirse wound up getting an impromptu haircut. One minute we were brushing her teeth and the next thing I knew, there were fluffy piles of baby hair piling up along the sink. Some of it's still there in fact because I'm sort of a weird sentimentalist who doesn't want to throw her baby's hair in the garbage and yet I've kept enough baby hair by now to know that there's no real point in keeping it around.

But it's still hard to let go of that which is "baby" and nothing says baby like the strands of hair that she was born with.

Just like nothing says "big girl" like a bob.

Since the skies were bright and the day held hints of spring, we tried our luck at the Zoo.

I always forget just how much these children miss being outside and the fact that we fill our winter days with the Museum and the library and other countless indoor field trips is great and all, but there is something to be said for fresh air.

Fresh air and rain boots and that's all. Animals? What animals?

This was what greeted us when we got home from our puddle splashing.

You should have seen how excited we were to discover this trail of petals. I think the babies were almost as giddy as I was. Nuala was especially thrilled and kept trying to make sense of it all. She also ate my chocolate while I was taking pictures.

Oh, she's good. She just patted her belly and tried to distract me with innocent doe eyes when I asked her where it disappeared to. She didn't even have any traces of it on her fingers or cheeks, that's how good she is.

As for my Valentine? I'm not even sure there are words for him.

Dear sir, you came into my life and you changed my story. You gave me shelter and together we made it a home. My heart is your heart. The story is now ours. I will love you every step of the way and I will be forever grateful that we found this life together. I treasure you.

Yes, I'd say that Cupid was very good to us this year.

I had to twist some arms to attempt a group shot of my older Valentines, who were skeptical, cheeky even, about having to wear hearts in the photo, but somehow we managed. Hard to believe how big they are getting, startling even, and it makes my heart actually ache a little bit.

But it's a good kind of ache.

I just had to throw this one in to point out that after all the grumbling, they kept those hearts on through dinner and beyond. They still have that soft spot for silliness and I hope they always do.

And of course it wasn't perfect, there were cookies that never got frosted and chores that still had to be done. There was homework and an impatient photographer and the fact that Brendan saw his gift ahead of time (when he came home super sneaky style to lay out the petal trail).

Still I wouldn't change a thing and so in that sense it was perfect because it was ours and we get to do it all over again today.

Now if you'll excuse me there is a 20 month old who is terrorizing me with her current need to sit on the potty every 5 minutes. "Beep.....Beep........Beeeeeeeeeeeeep" she wails at me if I can't attend to her diaper quickly enough, and while I'm not quite ready to tackle the beep with her, it's not exactly the type of behavior that I want to discourage either.

So back and forth we go. Every.Five.Minutes. If you don't hear from me soon, send help.