Hearts

I had a rare day away from the kids today, since I was scheduled to work in the Fly Shop.  It was a busy day with a lot of spring cleaning, talking to customers, and even selling a little.  By the time I headed over to pick up the kids from school I was exhausted, and crossing my fingers that they would be in happy moods.  I was pretty sure I couldn't handle another rough night.  My plan of attack at pick up time is, usually, to pick up Tes first, and then Christian.  It's just easier to wrangle my rambunctious daughter without a sour toddler on my hip.

When I got to Tessie's classroom, I found her sitting on the floor with markers spread around her, hard at work on a drawing.  She smiled up at me when I got closer, and I saw that she had covered her paper in purple hearts.  I told her how much I loved it, she beamed up at me and announced "I made it for you!"  I was touched almost to tears, but held them back for the sake of her teacher.  I don't want to be that mom.  She wanted to write "For Mom" at the top of the page, so I spelled out the words as she carefully wrote it out.  I was so proud.

It was a good thing she had me buttered up, because Christian screamed at me from the time I took him out of school, until we were almost home.  I was barely hanging on to my last thread of sanity, when he finally quieted down.  I took a deep breath, and then Tessie's sweet voice piped up from the back seat.  "Mommy, do you know why I made you so much hearts? Because I love you so much!"  My heart nearly burst.  At least they usually only attack one at a time, and lucky for Christian, his sister swooped in with a beautiful save.