1st kisses, etc.

valentines day, 2007-- sparrow gives her 1st kisses. here is how it happened:

i have been trying to get sparrow to kiss me since she was about 3 months old. finally, around christmas time, she started getting the kiss-motion down, and she would smack her lips absent-mindedly as she was crawling around. then it turned into an associateion; i would tell her, "say 'mama'!" and she would do a kiss-kiss motion. but she always kissed the air and i was never sure if she was really getting it.

on valentine's day we were all lying on the living room floor and thomas kissed me to show sparrow "kisses." and here is what she does: she crawls right over to thomas, does her kiss-kiss motion, and then plants her open, wet lips, right on his face! it was frickin adorable; i was melting! and not at all jealous that after all that good training, her 1st real kisses were given to her daddy. she is pretty much head over heels for him anyway... in fact, last night, the first time i have heard her talk in her sleep, she sighed, "dada" in such a heartbreakingly sweet voice that i could NOT be bummed that she was in our bed between us and (i knew) ready for a long night of nursing on me, pushing me little by little into uncomfortable positions in the corner as she always does when she snacks on cafe mom for extended hours at night. (which is why i now always nurse her down in a rocking chair first and then put her in her own bed for at least the 1st half of the night.) i started laughing after the "dada" sleeptalk, and remembered that it is worth it to be tired, to get to experience this little creature's every day amazingness. tired doesn't even feel like it used to, because it is laced with the giddy energy of new life emanating from her and affecting me through osmosis or something. it's the Lord.

but back to valentine's day, isn't it funny in general how having kids makes you WAY more into holidays? i mean, for the entire month of december, i would belt out christmas carols to sparrow every time we were in the car; i NEVER do that! and i used to rail and rant on about how horrible valentines day is: cheesy, kitschy, red and pink don't look good together, marketing holiday invented by hallmark, hoochie high schoolers with too much lipliner walking around with enormous balloon-boquets and teddy bears that wouldn't even fit in my car. those teddy bears are the hugest knick-knacks EVER! i'd like to interview girls that have received those tokens of "love" and see where their teddy bears ended up. i mean, what do you DO with a heart-covered, synthetic, animal-shaped cushion that is half the size of your living room? it has absolutely no function in this world! plus it's ugly. absolute waste of energy, labor, and money. eventually you are probably so annoyed by it that you give/ throw it away and are subsequently eaten by nagging guilt for the rest of your days because you got rid of a sweetly-intentioned gift.

all this to say, that yes, i was cynical about it, (and the teddy-bear part i (obviously) still think is just plain STUPID) but this year, i had changed. i was making chocolate-covered strawberries, shortcake, and chocolate hearts and initials, for crying outloud; and was excited to go buy some champagne and red-orange daisies for my husband. CORNY! what had gotten into me? last year, though we were already married, we certainly hadn't planned to do anything! (we did end up going to dinner, but that's because someone slipped a $70.00 gift certificate under our door!!) i swear, it's the baby's influence. she is just so --FUN, and sweet, and makes you want to celebrate--anything.