A SAHM’s Valentine’s Day

I knew my Valentine’s Day wouldn’t inspire moms around the world when I found myself trying to get my 5-year-old son to sign his Valentines neatly. Of course I’d bought the Valentine’s last minute so selection was slim and I was limited to Hello Kitty or clip art sticker pets. The graphic designer in of me cringed as my son signed the generic looking pet sticker Valentines, only because I pictured my Valentine cards looking, well, less 1992 and more 2012. My last minute purchase meant he was also signing them right before bedtime. I went to Facebook to complain about how painful kids’ Valentine’s cards were, and learned that I’d picked the worst way to do it. Most of my friends had bought their Valentine's cards weeks before and enlisted older siblings to help.
 
So you can imagine how disappointed I was when Isaac forgot to even hand out his cards. (The same thing happened last year, except my cards were handmade.)
 
This morning I woke up extra early to set out cards and candy for our children and my husband, picturing all of us gathered around the table with heart-shaped pancakes. Instead the two kids fought, my husband overslept and then Gillian fed Isaac’s candy to the dog. With a playdate for my son planned, Gillian and I made a batch of sugar cookie dough. While making the dough Gillian ate raw eggs, stabbed me with a fork and tried to stick a spatula into my KitchenAid mixer. 
 
It made me miss my pre-children and career-girl days. The days where I’d wear a cute pink skirt to my office, have cupcakes and potlucks and "ooh" and "ahh" over the flowers and chocolates myself and the other office girls got.
 
Instead I was covered in food colouring, raw eggs and toddler snot. And at times like these I really wonder what I’ve gotten myself into. I quit my job for this? The day that is supposed to be all about love, and here I am breaking up a biting match between my kids.
 
It took awhile for the dust to settle — timeouts and tickle fights did the trick — then we finally sat down to decorate our cookies. And my wee little Valentines made me the sweetest treat. I’m just thankful that the oven likely cooked all of the cold germs off of it. 
 
Happy Valentine’s Day mamas.