Happy Valentines Day!

Nicole and I are different in pretty much every way.  She is a thrill seeker and I am a thrill avoider.  She loves music and has dance moves that can rival even her Uncle Jonathan.  I cannot read a single music note even after years of music lessons and was such a terrible dancer in High School that they gave me the made-up position of "hand dancer" in a musical I was in.  Nicole prefers to play in the company of others while I almost always prefer to "play" alone.  One thing that we have in common though is a deep love of words.  It's hard to know what is nature vs. nurture when drawing these kinds of similarities because I have been reading to Nicole, singing to her throughout her day and talking with her since she was born.  Regardless of whether her love from words stems from the many, many words we've shared over the last 2+ years or it was knit into her being before I ever knew her, it's been an aspect of her personality that I have loved to celebrate.

This February we've been celebrating Valentine's Day by putting a heart on Nicole's door every afternoon while she's napping.  The hearts all have different messages written on them like, "Nicole, I love your smile" or "Nicole, you are good at sharing".  I wrote all 14 hearts in one sitting in the company of some other mommies and tucked them inside one of my top dresser drawers when I got home.  I taped the first one up while she was napping on February 1st and I couldn't believe how quickly she noticed it when I opened the door the get her out of her crib that day.  She smiled one of the widest smiles I have ever seen when I read her the message on that very first heart and has continued to enthusiastically listen to all of the other heart messages each afternoon since.

She'll get her final heart when she wakes up from nap time today and then I'll let her decide what she wants to do with the hearts once she has them all.  I knew Nicole loved words before I put together this little celebration for her but I had no idea how much I would see her tender heart being filled and cared for with each affirmation.  It's been a fun activity for her, but it's also been incredibly insightful to me as I gained a clear window into the heart of my daughter.

Now that I know just how much words of affirmation mean to Nicole, I am planning a similar activity for after baby brother is born.  I'll probably use a more public space in our house so that it feels different than the hearts but I hope that Shawn and I (and any visitors!) will be able to write messages to her that affirm her new role as a big sister and help her feel confident and cared for.

My hope for you today is that you feel loved, affirmed, cared for and celebrated in ways that are deeply meaningful to you.  Know that you are important to us and we're grateful every single day that we get to share so much of our lives with you through this blog.  Thanks for staying connected week after week and for allowing us to be in touch despite the distance. 

Happy Valentines Day!
Love,
Erica