Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine drawing from my older son. Clearly Mommy likes hearts...and ice cream.

I used to like Valentine's Day as a kid. I remember being so excited to receive those silly paper Valentines from my friends at school with messages like "I'm nuts for  you" (with a picture of a squirrel carrying an armful of acorns) or "You make my heart flutter" (with a picture of a butterfly) or "You make my heart go vrrrooom!" (with a picture of a race car whizzing by). As a kid, everything was about love and hearts. As I grew older, Valentine's Day lost its novelty. Or maybe it was my inner cynic that started to take over. But, having kids has made Valentine's Day fun all over again.

The title page inside my "special" book.

I woke up this morning to my two little boys scampering into our room to wish Ed and I "Happy Valentine's Day." The little one was so excited to give me the card that he made for me yesterday. They gave me my "Special Book" and showed me all their drawings.

I can't remember where I got the idea. I'm sure that I read about it on a blog. Instead of buying me presents for my birthday, Mother's Day or any of the other million holidays, I asked the boys to draw pictures for me instead. They went out with Ed and picked out a special notebook for me. Since then, they've proceeded to fill it with big and colorful drawings, always signing them with an outline of their hand.

My younger son's Valentine drawing for me this year. 

I adore this book and all the effort the boys put into it. They take it very seriously and shut me out of their room while they are working on it. I like the idea of having a visual chronicle of the boys' art work over the years. Yes, we still do have a growing file cabinet drawer full of their art work from school but this is different. These are drawings that they've made especially for me. I also hope that they see that presents don't always have to be material things - that their drawings make me happier than any gift that they could buy.

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