Normally, I get a little bummed out when the rest of the world is running around with little hearts orbiting their heads. There have even been a few years where I wanted to throw things at them and pop the little hearts orbiting around their heads.
You know, like darts.
But this year, I'm fine. So fine in fact, that I baked cookies for the girls to take to school and for me to take to work and bought like eight boxes of Valentine cards so that they could have their choice of cards.
I didn't even feel a twinge of pity for myself.
You hear that Universe?
Not even a twinge.
The day before Valentine's Day, the daycare called me as I was driving home from work to tell me that Amanda had arrived at the daycare and went immediately to sleep on the floor.
If you are a parent, you know as well as I do that when a kid gets off of a bus in the afternoon and immediately goes to sleep, they are sick.
You can actually call your pediatrician and tell them you need an appointment for the following day and when they ask what is the matter, you can say, "she got off the bus and went right to sleep!"
And they will respond with, "oh no, that sounds serious."
And there will be no sarcasm in their tone at all.
Because, universally, kids do.not. sleep unless they absolutely have to.
When I got there to pick her up I could tell without a doubt that she was sick.
She was pink faced and blotchy [read: fever] and still laying down on a mat with a cool cloth on her head.
I squatted down next to her to feel her fever with my Magic Mommy Temperature Taking Hands and said, "oh kiddo, looks like your sick."
She responded with, "it's ok Mommy, I'll be better by tomorrow."
I laughed and told her that I was pretty sure that, while this wasn't fatal, it would be a few days before she was better. And at that, my baby burst into tears.
You see, dear reader, Amanda has a crush on a little boy named Wyatt. Wyatt has very red hair :) And he likes her too. And Wyatt had told her that he was going to be getting her something for Valentine's Day and by golly Amanda wanted to be there to get it.
Who wouldn't right?
And here I was donning my Super Mean Mommy Cape and telling her that, due to her fever, she couldn't attend school the following day?! Inconceivable!
She was trying, pleading with me, to change my mind. She could. not. miss Valentine's Day.
I told her to get her backpack and we would discuss it in the car.
Half way to her cubby she barfed all over the floor pretty much sealing her fate.
February the thirteenth was just about the worst day of her life so far as she could tell.
The rest of the evening she teetered between begging me, crying and pretending as though she were fine and totally going to school the next day.
Then she barfed all over the hallway and realized that no amount of begging was getting her to school the next day.
Well, Wyatt did indeed bring her some things for Valentine's day.
She was so happy and I could remember how cool it felt to be that happy that you liked someone and they liked you back.
I was very jazzed for her.
Triniti on the other hand suddenly became obsessed with boyfriends. She called my mom and began asking her what her boyfriend had gotten her for Valentine's Day. My mom told her she didn't have a boyfriend, which is true and then Triniti went into this loooooong spiel about her boyfriend, Jose.
(Which explains why she gets so weird when I tell her "no way, Jose!")
As things in the house started calming down (as everyone came off of their respective sugar highs), I went to my room to lay down and read the newspaper.
What?
I totally read the newspaper.
Sometimes...
I was reading an article about the Chinese New Year (Feb. 18 begins the year of the boar) when Trin came in and climbed onto my bed.
After she fixed my hair, as she has started to do whenever she sees me, she said, "Mamma? Who's your boyfriend?"
I told her I didn't have one.
She smiled at me and in her tell-me-the-truth-tone said, "yes you do. Who is it?"
Again I explained that I don't have one.
She looked at me for a second, seemingly trying to decide if I was lying or not and after she was convinced of my honesty, hugged me.
"That's ok Mamma. My daddy will marry you."
I told her that I didn't want to marry her daddy.
"Well, who are you going to marry then?"
I tried to explain to her as best I could that I wasn't planning to marry anyone in the foreseeable future and that that was ok.
And apparently failed miserably because she laid her head down on the pillow and started crying.
I asked her why she was crying and she basically told me it was because I didn't have a boyfriend and I wasn't getting married and that was just about the saddest thing her little mind could think of.
Bless her heart.
After I got her consoled and asleep, I got myself ready for bed. I laid down and thought about whether it upset me or not that I was alone, again, this year.
It really doesn't.
With that decided, my brain was able to work on more productive things. Like picking out the paint colors I am going to be redoing my kitchen in this weekend :)
Labels: Amanda, Being Mommy, Triniti, Valentine's Day
