Each night before Ashton & Kate take a bath, they set a decorated apple juice container outside our front door for "Cupid". While they take a bath, Cupid comes by and deposits some sort of Valentine's Day fodder (chocolate hearts, tiny snow globes with hearts inside, mini-puzzles, etc) into it, but only if they take a bath/brush teeth/put on pjs.
For 4 years I fought Ashton and for 2 Kate on getting into the tub (they have always loved it once they were in it) and now as soon a the last bite of his dinner is chewed Ashton is naked and running the bath water without even a prompting. He always sounds so excited drying off asking Paul each night "Did Cupid come? Did he??"
I guess I could have continued to carry them/threaten them/punish them into doing what I was telling them, but this way has been so much more pleasant! And they have learned about Valentine's Day and filled the dreary cold and dark winter month of January with the warmth of anticipation and excitement of a holiday that is about L-O-V-E and for L-O-V-E.
Next month I will try my best to delight them into noticing signs of spring - think flower buds, seeds sprouting, daffodils appearing to both instill the wonderment of mother nature's passing of time and begin a lifelong appreciation of nature. I feel in the rush-rush-rush of our daily lives, taking time to stop and notice the flowers is paramount and smelling them is a necessity. Oh yes, and, as the red-haired Kate so clearly demonstrates, we'll be sure to squeeze in some talk of leprechauns to discuss our Irish ancestry too...right around March 17! (My great-grandmother is from the County Cork in Ireland...but were Kate gets her leprechaun-ess is another story for another post!)
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