Spoiled

I had the day off today--yay! Unfortunately, I'm on call tomorrow for 24 hours, so I tried to enjoy the day as best as I could. First I have to backtrack to last night. I do this every year. I wait until the night before the kids exchange valentines at school to make their valentines and I stay up too late as a result. It's a good thing I was off today!

This is a picture of the bookmarks I cut from my Cricut electronic die-cutter for Alex's class. He was not "into" valentines this year. He didn't even want me to buy candy for him to give out. Last year he wanted a non-descript bag of candy. He "allowed me" to at least put stamped personalized labels on the bags. This year a note went out just this week specifically stating NOT to include any treats with the valentines that the kids give out. I guess I wasn't feeling that creative anyway, but he would not have allowed any extra items to make the bookmarks look "cute". Alex doesn't like "cute". If I had been more prepared, I would have at least gotten pencils or something to send with the bookmarks. Still, Patrick thought I was spoiling Alex for spending a lot of time making these. Patrick even helped by laminating them for me.

Natalie had the boxed type of valentines I bought at Target. They were "3D valentines" that had pictures of butterflies and flowers and such and they had that special film that makes the pictures change depending on the angle you hold them. It's hard to describe and even harder to take a picture of. She wrote the names on the cards all by herself so I didn't notice until she had put them away to take to school that she folded them the wrong way. The design was on the outside but the names of the recipients were on the inside. Other than that she did a great job by herself. Fortunately, we had already bought pencils to give out with the valentines for her class, along with some candy that we didn't get to use, so at least she had something else to give.

Interestingly, other kids brought treats with their valentines, which Patrick and I knew would happen, but he told me last night that he didn't want to be "one of those parents" that deliberately disobey a specific directive from the school like that.

Speaking of spoiled, this little man is sucking on a lollipop that he got from the haircut place today. He was SO good for his haircut. I've never been present when he was this good. When we got there, he saw that one of kids getting his hair cut was watching Dora, so he started watching too. Then when it was his turn, the hairdresser put Dora on for him too. He sat in the Lightning McQueen car/chair and watched TV the whole time. She was fast so he didn't have to sit for long, but he didn't cry or even make any noise this time. I was very happy about that so I let them give him this lollipop and a balloon.

I also bought him this cool toy. There are two blocks and a base to put them on. If you match the two sides correctly, the toy will make the sound of the vehicle (ambulance, motorcycle, train, fire engine, airplane, and tugboat) depicted on the matched blocks. Often, I will think a toy is cool but my child will not and won't play with it. Thankfully, this was not the case with this toy. There was another set with pictures of animals on it. I might have to get that for a future present.

My children aren't the only ones that are spoiled. I am too. :) My laptop's battery won't hold a charge anymore. It was going to cost over $100 to buy a new battery (because it's so old). Also, the only place Patrick could find that sells that battery is a seller on Ebay, so he was hesitant to buy it. While Eric and I were at the haircut place, he saw a laptop at Best Buy for $329 plus tax. After lunch, we went to Best Buy and bought it for me. When we were walking out with it, I told him that was way too easy--too easy to just go to a store and spend lots of money. I felt so spoiled and excited about my new toy. Of course, he took the opportunity to tell me, "Happy Valentine's Day, Hon!" :) Alex is getting my hand-me-down laptop. He doesn't care that it has to stay plugged in to work. Lots of spoiling going all around in this family. :)

Here is one more piece of evidence of the spoiling in this family. When we got home, Dad was bent over on the floor putting this toy together for Eric. Even when Eric had gone on to play with something else, Dad was still there putting the roads together. I love that he can still play with Eric. Love you, Dad!