Happy Valentine's Day!

The kids and I have had a tradition for several years of eating heart shaped food on Valentine's Day such as heart shaped pancakes or a piece of toast with a heart shaped egg cooked in the middle of the toast. Because Oliver had an appointment at 8:20 at the Pediatrician's office to have his sutures removed, I decided to take the kids to Dunkin Donuts for heart shaped donuts for breakfast this morning. I bought half a dozen, we ate five of them, and we brought one home for Paul to eat this evening. This time of year is the only time the Dunkin Donuts in our area sell the brownie batter donuts, which happen to be a favorite of Nadia, Ian, and myself. Oliver really did NOT want the doctor taking his stitches out. I had to help restrain him. I guess he was really in shock or something last Thursday as he was totally still when they put the stitches in. The doctor told me he had a concussion in addition to a skull fracture and laceration according to the records he received from the hospital. As for the Chiari malformation, he said that until Oliver has symptoms (headaches and such) that we shouldn't consider surgery. I hope he never needs brain surgery! I will ask more questions about it when we see the neurosurgeon again next month.

After the doctor appointment we came home and Nadia and Ian did their schoolwork. Oliver finished a 100 piece puzzle he had started last night. This afternoon while Nadia and Ian were in gymnastics class Oliver and I bought a few things at Walmart and checked out some books, cds, and a dvd about fish at the library. Then the kids played in the children's museum that's in the same building as gymnastics for about 50 minutes before we came home for dinner. We didn't do anything special for lunch, but for dinner I made heart shaped white chocolate chip pancakes for the boys and the heart shaped egg in the toast for Nadia. The last at least two years I bought the kids each one small gift for Valentine's Day. Two years ago I got them each a puzzle. Another year I got them each a book. This year I got all of them one gift (paid $20 to buy 24 episodes of Spiderman and his Amazing Friends from the 80's), plus I bought Nadia one $3 Adventures in Odyssey CD, Ian one Imagination Station book for the Kindle, and two picture books (that haven't arrived yet). I received my MOST favorite Valentine's Day gift from my whole life yesterday - a canvas the kids painted. Nadia did the painting, all three of them put their handprints on it, all three of them wrote their name, and Ian and Nadia wrote their ages. Tab (babysitter) wrote Oliver's age and helped Nadia draw the heart. Nadia wrote in very neat cursive - Owl Always ❤ you! The handprints were made to look like three owls in a tree. At the bottom of the tree it says Feb 2018. I am going to hang it on the wall somewhere and treasure it for years to come! It was SUCH a thoughtful thing for her to have the kids do for me. It means SO SO much to me!

I am very glad I was with my three Valentines today. Yesterday they were at the babysitter's house for 10.5 hours as I observed student teachers and then taught my classes on campus. Oliver received one get well card in the mail yesterday and three more today. He also received a Valentine's Day card in the mail today from his AWANA leader. She is a very thoughtful lady! Three of the four get well cards were from people at First Baptist (where the kids play basketball) and one was from a lady in my Sunday School class. Oliver enjoyed getting all that mail!!! Daddy brought home cards for each of them from Grandma this evening. Oliver hasn't finished memorizing John 3:14-16, but he's making progress as seen below. Seems appropriate to share verses about God's love on the holiday that's focused on love! I didn't have the kids make any Valentine's Day crafts, cards, or heart shaped sugar cookies as we usually do, but it's just not possible for me to do everything I used to now that I've taken on a FT job.