Feeling Loved!

Do you know what is really nice? Having a child whose love language is "words of affirmation". Every family deserves at least one child like this. Someone to always tell you how much they love you. Always hearing you are the best Mom in the whole wide world. A child who sings you goofy love songs they make up themselves. A little angel soul who writes you so many love notes, you feel guilty throwing some of them away, but where would you keep them all? In our family this is Kate. She is always the lover. And this year she came into her own with a new found understanding of Valentines Day.

She has been practicing secret songs for a month in preparation for her Kindergarten Valentine program. It is killing her that they are top secret. She attempts to sing one everyday and then either her hand flies over her mouth to stop herself or I have to remind her that they are supposed to be a surprise. Sometimes the wait seems impossibly long and she makes up new words to the melodies of the songs she's been practicing just so she can sing something to me.

She has been wearing outfits to school that she makes up all on her own trying to monopolize on this holiday all about love. Everything has to be pink or red. If the outfit is covered in hearts she can bear another color. But everything has to Valentinesish. She has even worn her golashes (red with pink hearts) to school everyday for the last two weeks.

Then the night of her program came. She was beaming with excitement. She and her classmates sang us songs, recited poems and hand delivered a special hand made valentine to their favorite person. She was so happy.

A few days later Dave and I heart attacked all the kids rooms. Within a few hours of being awake themselves the girls had recycled the hearts in their room and heart attacked our room. And then there was the hours worth of work all three kids spent cutting out tiny hearts to make confetti to shower me with when I woke up. It was a perfectly great Valentine day. But it never ended.
For the last week Kate has made literally dozens of Valentines for her family. I have kept some and others (because of the sheer volume of these sweet notes) have gotten misplaced. But how great is it to have a child that always loves you and tells you several times a day. She is a priceless gift.