Valentines

This morning after breakfast, the kids and I decided to prepare for Monday's Valentine's parties at school and make out Valentine cards. This was Grace's first experience making Valentine cards, and she loved, loved, loved it. I wrote her name on each Valentine with an orange marker, and she traced her name with pen. She loved decorating the cards with markers and stickers. They are quite creative!
Gabriel started out strong. He wanted to write his friends' names and his name on all of the cards by himself. He was very particular about who got which card and which sticker. After about an hour, he completely lost interest. We took a break and played Uno. A little later, we had lunch. After lunch I wrote his friends' names on all of the cards, and I asked him to write his name on the cards while I showered.
After about five minutes, he was upstairs knocking at the bathroom door.

Here is one of the many things that I truly adore about my boy. When he is irritated or frustrated, he is direct, honest, and to the point. He opened the the bathroom door with a frown on his face and said, "Mommy, I don't like doing Valentine cards anymore. I don't like it. I'm not going to do. It's boring." He said it very matter-of-factly. He wasn't mean, and he didn't raise his voice. He stood there looking at me, I think, waiting to get in trouble. I just said, "Okay. You don't have to." He turned and walked away. I poked my head out the door and asked, "So what will you give your friends at school on Valentine's Day?" He didn't even turn around to answer, "Just candy." And he huffed downstairs.

Another memorable moment:
As soon as we started making out Valentine cards this morning, Gabriel leaned across the kitchen table and "whispered" to me, "Mom, I'm going to make one for Grace." I gave him a thumbs up, and he got busy working in silence. Grace leaned over to me and said, "Mommy, can I make card for Gabe?" "Of course," I told her. So SHE got busy working silently on a card for Gabriel. For probably five minutes they each worked in absolute silence. Occasionally, one of them would hold up their card so I could give them a thumbs up. Finally, Gabriel put his card behind his back and walked over to Grace. He said, "Gracie, I have a surprise for you! TA-DA!" He pulled out the card. She was so sweet . . . she acted totally surprised and told him how pretty it was. Then she gave him hers and he told her thank you and that he liked it. I just sat in awe of my kids. They DO love each other! Those sweet moments are few and far between. There is more rivalry than love most of the time, but boy, I LOVE the sweet moments!