My Little Valentine

I had the cutest valentine around. Here's Daphne decked out in her red valentine fairy outfit. She was adorable! and loved wearing it. Her latest exclamation when she puts on her sparkle shoes or sees fabric she likes is: "Oh cuuute! I wuv it!" She's a little parrot I guess. While Van rolls his eyes anytime she says it (only because he thinks she may have been to the fabric store one too many times), we both think it's really cute to hear her say it in her sweet little voice.
For Valentines night I got to accompany Van on the most romantical of our dates yet---taking the recruits for his program that were there interviewing that day to dinner! They had a few that couldn't make it on the regular recruiting weekends and this was the alternate day they'd set up. I asked if I could at least tag along, rather than sitting home alone, and got a really nice dinner out of it! We even paid for a babysitter, which is rare in these parts. It was fun to come home and have her gush about how good Daphne was, how much fun she had playing with her, what a good talker she is and how adorable she is. It's funny how even though she was sleeping for all but a 1/2 hour of the time we were gone, I missed her something fierce and was tempted (not too strongly mind you) to go and get her up and play with her when we got home. Van and I always quote her and talk about her much of the time we're out together too. Our little one has multiplied our joy more than I could have imagined.

My slightly taller valentine was pretty cute too! He sent me a love note in the mail, which I loved, since I love getting letters. He also surprised me with a gift certificate for 2 free private ballroom dance lessons at a studio nearby for us to do together. I had to solve 3 musical riddles before I got my gift and he's also making me dinner and a fun dessert on saturday. I'm a lucky girl and excited to go dancing with my sweetie. He got the fruits of my Valentines day activity--sugar cookies :) I'll do better for his birthday in a couple of weeks and make up for it in the next little while---it has been CRAZY busy, if that's any sort of a reasonable excuse. (Actually, I just remembered that I gave him his gifts early--I have a hard time waiting.....a black Edgar Alan Poe t-shirt from here made by my friend Dylan and The Secret of Kells DVD--if you haven't seen it, you should.) I love both my Valentines, tall and small and it was a fun day.