Valentine's Day

Michael and I have spent most of Valentine's Day tag-teaming-- I went to yoga, he watched the kids; he went to yoga, I watched the kids; etc. Henry has come down with an odd illness; he has a headache and fever, but no other symptoms. I was worried until I talked to a friend of mine who had the exact same thing this past week, and got over it in two days; I hope that's the case for Henry. But besides hating to take his Tylenol, Henry is a darling sick patient; he colors, he dozes, he politely asks for peeled oranges and glasses of milk. I enjoy my chance to mother him more; when he's healthy he doesn't let me!

Agatha is equally lovable. I've decided to try to gradually wean her, so this week I'm just sticking to our three ingrained nursing moments per day (morning wake-up, before nap, and before bed). Those other times when she wants to nurse, when I know it isn't real hunger or thirst, I'm trying to replace the nursing with other kinds of snuggling. She loves it! She giggles and laughs and hugs and kisses me. So wonderful. She now refers to Henry as "Hen" and herself as "Aga," and she is talking pretty much continuously all day long. "Aga buttball, pa-pie, Dada!" means, "Daddy, will you please chew up a piece of dried papaya for me?" "Cut! cut!" she'll plead, pointing to a banana. "Aga peel!" And when I gave her the rare treat of ice cream tonight after dinner, she said, "More, pees!"

Yesterday morning we all went out to breakfast and then to the milk farm and then to the Target. After three days mostly snowbound, we were all so excited to get out; we just roamed the aisles of Target, ogling the merchandise. Henry picked out a large-size Star Wars coloring portfolio (the pages aren't bound) and has been working on that diligently since Saturday afternoon. He's been well enough to sit at his desk and color, on and off. Tonight when we tucked him in, even though he was feverish and sick, he told Michael that he couldn't wait to show him the work he did on Darth Vader's space ship. "Every day, I'm going to do my coloring every Friday, so I won't be available to do anything else, Mama," he said; this is Michael's habit of "Art Fridays" in his studio. Then he reconsidered; "What day is today?" Sunday. "Every day, I'm going to do my coloring every Monday, Mama." Guess he can't wait all the way till Friday!