Confession - V Day Edition

So here's my confession: I'm a holiday junkie.  Not nearly as hardcore as my dear friend, Jill Daniel.  She puts Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and any other holiday mascot to shame!  Nonetheless, give me a reason to celebrate a festive day, and I am all over that.

I have always loved Valentine's Day.  Even when I hated it.  (Single people, you know what I'm talking about.)  I love the colors and the hearts everywhere and the excuse to eat lots of chocolate and exchange presents less than two months after Christmas!  (Some time we'll talk about the fact that my love language is Gift Receiving.)

Now that I'm a mom, I just get all squishy inside and have to fight really hard not to overdo it.  So imagine how excited I was to learn that Collin's school was doing a whole week's worth of fun activities in celebration of V-Day?!

Monday was Pajama Day.
Tuesday was 80's Day.  (My kid had no idea what that means, but he was pumped!)

Wednesday was Hat Day.
Thursday was Crazy Dress Day.  Collin wore mismatched shoes, socks, comfy pants and his shirt inside-out. This was his "crazy" pose for Crazy Day!

Friday...wait for it...Wear Your Red, Pink and Valentine's Themed Outfits.

When it came to his Valentine's cards this year, I knew I wanted to do something different.  I wasn't impressed with the selection at the store last year, so I hit up Pinterest.  Let me just say, I often delude myself into thinking that most moms are like me, they peruse Pinterest occasionally and have the best of intentions regarding recreating all the cutesy stuff from their Craft or Holiday boards.  But no one really does any of that fancy, time-intensive stuff...do they?  Well, let me just tell you how wrong that thinking is!  Evidenced by the fact that I went two weeks before Valentine's Day to find card-stock for Collin's cards and there was none to be found.

Thus, I was forced to use what I already had on hand...hot pink card-stock.  Ta-da!

Mason jar print-outs with finger puppet insects.
Happy Valentine's Day, Love Bug !

Besides forcing myself to complete a Pinterest craft, Valentine's Day is also a good excuse to use my kid as a reason to give lots of nice people a Valentine!  His sweet babysitters, his daycare teachers and our friends...some of these people might not have received a Valentine otherwise.  It just makes me so happy, and it makes Jarrod roll his eyes!  A lot.

But most of all, I like to spoil Collin Henry.  We're making him wait until he gets home from school today to receive his Valentine from us.  He has already received sweet packages from his Nonne in Texas and cousins in Oklahoma, plus his party at school is today.  He'll be all loved out by the end of Valentine's Day!

Finish Strong

As if I wasn't already noticing on a daily basis how much Collin is growing, he decided this weekend to take up calling me, "Mama".  It's very obvious that he's doing it cautiously and watching for a response.  At first I just laughed at it and didn't make a big deal.  We asked him a few times where he picked it up, but he would just shrug his little boy shoulders.  It wasn't until yesterday afternoon when I realized it really bothers me!

We offered to pick up a friend from the airport yesterday evening, so we went to Little Rock early and made a Target run.  Collin had had a nap and a snack and apparently that made for a lethal combination because he was literally running through Target like it was the playground at his daycare.  I can't tell you how many times he was almost taken out by someone's cart as they came around an aisle...or a clothing rack.  He was a wild-child!  The store was pretty empty, because you know, SUPER BOWL XLVIII, plus there was this whole rainy, sleet thing going on outside.  But still, the kid was off his rocker with excess energy.  So it was during this time that he's running 50 feet ahead of me and then turning around to yell, "Hey!  Mama!!" when I realize I am NOT ready to be someone's "mama".

Some of you will totally get it, and some of you will think I'm ridiculous.  All I can say is that I may never get to do this again; I may never have anyone else to call me Mommy.

Well, on the way to school this morning, Collin declared that so-and-so (a little boy who is older than him but attends the same school and church as Collin) calls his mom "mama".  I knew he got it from somewhere!!

Besides trying to convince my kid to call me mommy again, we were also able to pick our friend up from the airport.  Collin held a cute little sign with her name on it, like he was her chauffeur.  She had to come down an escalator toward us, so she could see the sign the whole way down.  When she got off, Collin ran to her and gave her a big hug, and then he threw the sign at her and walked back toward Jarrod and me.  It was exactly like something out of a rom-com, until that last little bit!  Needless to say, everyone around us thought it was the most adorable thing ever.  I'm sure they thought she was our long lost friend/sister/what-have-you, rather than someone who lives here already and who we just happened to be picking up after a weekend trip to visit her boyfriend.  Fun times!

And because it wouldn't be a blog post without a weather gripe from me, please note that yesterday it was freezing (literally) and sleeting.  However, one week ago it was so nice outside that we went for a walk with Collin, and he rode his tricycle further than either of us imagined possible.  I really hope that Punxsutawney Phil is wrong.

Heart-breaker in the making.

Ok, so this may have happened for a little bit, but we made Collin get back on once we were close to the car so he could "finish strong"!  He loved it.