happy valentine's day

This is how we celebrated the day of Love.  With chocolate of course!

The Baby of course, knew nothing of what was going on today, nor did he care. He's still a little on the cranky side from being sick. The Little Dude however was definitely into it. He was happy with at the thought of cupcakes, and very happy at the thought of little m&m's. He was his usual not-very-helpful, helpful self as we baked. He put cupcake liners into the tins, and then threw them all out again. He sifted icing sugar very slowly. And then he held the hand mixer for me when we made the icing. Then he leaned on the edge of the counter and almost fell off the chair he was standing on, knocking down the cookbook I was using in the process. Didn't hurt himself, but had a bit of a scare and needed hugging. And then while I was cleaning up after the fallen cookbook and scattered paper liners etc. He climbed back up on the chair and started the beaters up again, but they were at an angle and he splattered icing everywhere. As he was doing this I was telling him, very urgently to stop. When I stopped him and asked rhetorically and with a bit of frustration what he was doing, he truthfully told me "I was ignoring." 

sigh. So basically he would not do anything I asked him to, but insisted on doing anything that I asked him not to. That's pretty much the definition of three-and-a-half, right?

We finally managed to get those cupcakes in the oven and there was a batter bowl left to lick out. Which is really his strong suit. Yeah, that is a picture of ALL TEN of his chocolate batter covered fingers in his mouth at the same time. First he rubs them vigorously around in the bowl and then he rubs like a crazy little crack addict in his mouth. Seriously, he rubs his gums. There is chocolate everywhere by the time he's done. 

I had big plans for later in the day to make a card for Daddy using this technique I saw on lilla a design where you let your kids use their fingers to stamp a heart. Very cute. (This one would have worked well too) But he absolutely refused to do it. Why? Because I wanted him to probably, but the reason he gave me was that he "didn't want to get his hands dirty". Hunh. Please see above photo and feel free to roll your eyes. Lord knows I did.  And in further surprising and contradictory developments, he did NOT want the cupcake with the m&m's on them when it finally rolled around to the end of lunch time when he was allowed to eat them. He chose a plain iced one instead. Though I suppose it was smarter, because the plain ones had more icing. 

GranGran joined us for lunch and forever cemented her place in his heart by bringing him not one, but TWO 'face trains' as he calls the Thomas and Friends toy trains. Cupcakes and trains, this kid could not have been happier. 

He almost had to unhinge his jaw to fit it, but he managed. 

And it was all worth it, especially when Hubs came home and was presented with a cupcake and a handmade card (we finally agreed on a stamping method that would not dirty his hands, using old thread spools to stamp a heart). Hubs was so pleased and surprised that it was worth all the mess, clean-up and mess again. 

Happy Valentines day to all of you. Here's to the beautiful mess that it is. 

Comments

[Marcia Van Drunen]

Love it. Of course. Much more functional, by the way, than went on here. Plus, I think you are a phenomenal mom.
Fantastic story to read. And a Happy Valentine's Day to you, too!