Happy Valentine's Day! Our day has been pretty sweet. Here are the valentines that were exchanged in our house this morning.
to: Mama
to: Papa
to: Mama & Papa
to: Big B & little b
to: Papa, Big B & little b
As I was cleaning up the mess from yesterday's valentine-making extravaganza, I stopped myself from throwing away the cardstock leftovers from Big B's cut-out hearts. Eleven of them were perfectly intact, and so lovely in their negative space, that I grabbed some yarn and strung them up. I can't wait for Big B to get home from preschool today!
To this day, every time I see a brown paper lunch bag, I get a flashback of elementary school Valentine's Day exchanges. This ritual has seen a few alterations. The commercialized card now far outnumbers the good old doily-and-construction paper variety, and political correctness has infiltrated the classroom. The preschool instructions to Big B were to sign, yet leave unaddressed, eighteen valentines to be objectively given to each child. This is a far cry from the popularity contests I remember. I would anxiously watch from my uncomfortable desk as the classmates whose friendships I coveted approached my decorated bag, hanging from the chalkboard. 
Then Big B got to work, studiously and ceremoniously cutting eighteen hearts out of dark pink and red cardstock (pink for girls, red for boys, I am told).
We coupled one heart with one valentine, and Big B punched holes through both layers of cardstock. He's really good at this; I think it's a gratifying use for his upper body strength. 
I tied them together with rick-rack, wrote his name on the back, and tucked them all into our own brown paper bag. What a cute little sack full of valentines. I can't wait to see what he brings home in his own decorated bag tomorrow!
The birth of a baby is a universal call to knitters. This is something I have only very recently understood. So when I saw this post on the holy mecca of blogs, just a week after my midwife had her first baby, I decided to challenge myself and do my first knitting-in-the-round project: The Gnomey Hat. I went to our finest local yarn shop for the occasion and picked out this gorgeous self-striping yarn.
Apparently I am not the only one who is enamored with the little gnomey! At a Florida Friends of Midwives event over the weekend, two other mamas were caught knitting the same hat. See, Soule Mama? You are spreading joy, one set of needles at a time. 
I finished the hat last night and decided not to add the pom-poms (you're welcome, Rio). I like it just the way it is, and I'm sure the sweet little man will look adorable in it. I thought he might be asleep when I gave it to his mama (and he was), so little b's Ernie ball had to pose for me. 
...and here is the actual little head that the hat will keep warm. Sweet dreams, darling one!
Living in Florida with children is a bountiful blessing. Sometimes we are reminded of that in the simplest of ways. We were gifted this gorgeous bowl of home-grown tangerines last week, and Big B cannot possibly gobble them up quickly enough. I am so glad. Papa just planted two tangerine trees in our backyard in December (a Murcott and a Dancy), and we will look forward to next winter's fruit for gifts of our own.
And, as always the compassionate and caring big brother, he offers the first bite to little b, while their faithful companion awaits the remains.
Big B had his first sewing lesson today--and he loved it! My cheeks hurt as I watched him carefully place the needle and pull it gently through the other side (gentleness is highly praised in our rough-and-tumble house).
