Tomorrow marks 12 years of marriage to my wonderful partner, Will. He’s put up with me as a partner for more than 15 years and he’s truly my better half. He motivates me, grounds me and makes me laugh. On top of that he’s a great dad to our two kiddos. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Will!
Side note – Will made me these really silly pop culture pun cards for Valentine’s day based on some recent tv shows we were watching. I don’t remember all of them, there were several, but the one that still disturbs me to this day was the one that said “my love for you is like a cordyceps infection… it will never leave you” or something equally horrifying. We’ve been watching the Witcher season 3 (admittedly it has gotten really terrible) so I am secretly hoping for a Geralt related card tomorrow.
All this talk of cards and love has reminded me I never told you any of the little cards and treats I put in Julius and Patricia’s Valentine backpacks. I’ll have to show you a good one. But first my list is digitally bursting at the seams (hitting the storage capacity?) of good quotes from Patricia and Julius from our vacation. They have been so darn cute playing together. For instance today they spent several hours “on a train” (aka the couch). Patricia and Julius play acted the entire time and I caught this little interaction:
Patricia: (to Julius) You are the best Julius ever again!
Julius: (to Patricia) You are the best Patricia ever again.
Patricia: Yeah I am, huh Julius?!
Julius: Yes you are.
Patricia, despite being in the throes of terrible two’s really wants to be a “good girl”. She’s a sweet adorable kiddo 95% of the time and she’s very thoughtful and concerned about the people around her. She frequently will ask how you’re feeling. One time I told her I couldn’t pick her up because my back was hurting and she asked me for the next two weeks how my back was feeling everytime she saw me. Lately she’s been asking, “How was your sleep? Did you have any nightmares?” to everyone after they wake up (even Dany). The 5% is usually toddler tantrums but sometimes downright naughtiness. For instance today Julius came in and told me, “Patricia ate all my pez!” We scolded her and asked her if it was true and she said “yeah, but they will refill!” We had to explain to her that Julius was the one filling up the pez dispenser making them “refill”. Julius added, “yeah and I can’t even refill it anymore because I can’t find the packet of grape pez!” And Patricia said nonchalantly “because I ate it”. Julius just stood there dumbfounded, and then like the rest of us started cracking up saying, “I don’t even know how she managed that.”
Julius still has his moments as well. He gets frustrated with Patricia sometimes, but most of the time he’s in good humor and includes her in his shenanigan’s. I was worried when we finally got pregnant again with Patricia that they would be too far apart in age, but so far it’s working out. Julius always seems like the big kid to us, so sometimes it’s hard for me to remember that he’s just a little guy. The other day at the beach was a reminder to me.
Julius was playing with sand and water and trying to fill a big hole up with ocean water. So he ran down to the water to fill up a bucket of water. As he’s running to the water’s edge he notices some boogie boarders and runs aways down the beach, then notices a dog and runs a bit further. Finally he gets to the water and fetches the water in his bucket. Now his bucket is very heavy so he laboriously drags it in to the shore. As he’s making his way up the beach his bucket hat blows off. He drops the bucket and starts chasing it and comically chases it for like 25 feet down the beach before he finally catches it. By this point he has attracted a lot of attention. People have been watching his progress and there are loud claps as he puts it on his head again. With the hat on his head he gets back to the bucket and it blows off again… the whole process repeats, though now he’s attracted even more attention and cheers and claps resound when he catches the hat for the second time. The entire time I’m just dying laughing myself watching him thinking how cute he is. Maybe I should have helped him…
One of the gifts I gave to Julius and Patricia was color changing tea. The kids are always asking me to make them tea and they love “experiments” so I figured this would be a win-win. I used the same technique from the teabags I made for one of my virtual ladies’ nights, but since I was only making 2 I hand-sewed them.
Color changing tea
What you’ll need (for each set):
- 1 plastic straw
- 1 unbleached coffee filter
- organic cotton thread
- 1 Tbsp butterfly pea flower tea (I used Indigo Punch from Harney & Sons)
- 1/4 tsp citric acid
- envelope
- Take plastic straw and using pliers pinch close to the end and then use a lighter to melt the very bottom, using the pliers to squish the melted end together.
- Pour in 1/4 tsp citric acid and then seal the other end of the straw.
- Fold coffee filter in half and hand stitch with cotton thread into a heart about 2″ wide. Leave an opening 1cm wide.
- Stitch in the reverse of the stitching back around the heart.
- Fill with tea, and close with more stitching.
- Write the instructions on the back of the envelope, “Steep teabag in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Discard. To make tea change color add contents of straw slowly. Stir.”
- Fill with ingredients and address to your Valentine!
