Things I do for love

Have you ever stopped to think about what you do for love? Seriously. And not the normal stuff (especially for the moms out there) like giving birth, saying "I love you" to someone, hugs and kisses, buying nice presents, the typical things. For me, it entails two things: making sandwiches and going to the park.

First, the making sandwiches. Yep, sandwiches. Sounds lame right (trust me there are days when I think it is totally lame too)? It all started way back when Jeff and I were dating. Somehow he suckered me into making him lunch - not to mention bringing him lunch to work or doughnuts and hot chocolate for 10 'o'clock breaks - on the few days a week that we had classes around the same time and well, it's never stopped. My aunt gave me some advice before I got married...there are 8 (I think!) kinds of love and each person wants their significant other to show them they love them by doing certain things. For some people it's hugs & kisses (well, you get the idea - I wanted to keep this "G" rated), others want presents, and some compliments. For Jeff, it's a sandwich. He's always told me that's how he knows I still love him - if I make him lunch. On the days I don't make lunch (most of the time it's because we either don't have sandwich meat or bread, or because I'm way too tired to stay up another 20 minutes), he thinks I'm mad at him. While there has been an occasional no sandwich day because I've been ticked off at him, for the most part he's had a lunch everyday for the last 6 + years. He even got sandwiches right after Pearl was born. If I was too tired to make one after putting her to bed, I would make a sandwich after her 4 am feeding! Oh the things you do for someone you love, I guess! I myself have no idea why this means so much to him, I just know my aunt said it was important to figure out how your hubby wants you to show him you love him and then just do it. But it's a sandwich for crying out loud! I can say that on the days I don't make lunch, and not because I'm mad at him, I feel terrible because I know Jeff is thinking, what did I do now? Plus it doesn't help when everyone he works with asks him what he did wrong this time. Jeff also told me that the one thing he fears in our marriage is not getting his lunch, and he's serious about it! So......two nights ago after I'd stayed up way, way too late doing homework, I walked into the kitchen and thought for about 2 seconds if it was worth it to make a sandwich (and take the risk of losing a finger cutting the tomatoes - it's happened before) or just go to bed. Well, as you can see love won out and the rest is blissful happiness!!!

Don't we have the coolest lunch boxes around? Jeff's is the Sesame Street one that he's had since elementary school! Jeff decided I needed a cool lunch box too and found this one in Washington DC for me. I'll admit at first I was a bit embarrassed to use it but now everyone knows it's mine.

Ta-da! The completed sandwich. Jeff's is ALWAYS cut into a triangle (what's with that?) or he doesn't like to eat them. I've even had offers from his co-workers to pay me to make them a lunch. Hmmm....maybe a good second job!

Now onto the park. Pearl LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the park! It doesn't matter that we have a sandbox, swimming pool, or playground in the backyard when there is a giant city park across the street. Everyday she tries to get out of the house and go to the park. So, every night after dinner we go to the park. My idea of long walk is now about 3 minutes of walking to the park and back home (could explain why this baby fat isn't going anywhere). While going to the park is fun, I don't get the complete fascination with it. Take for example, last Saturday. We were in Logan with nothing to do and so I took Pearl to Willow Park thinking she would really enjoy all the animals. I personally was looking forward to it because it had been one of my favorite places to go as a kid, and we were lucky that all the animals were out and about. Well, she did until she saw a slide, then it was all I could do to keep her strapped in the stroller until we got to the playground. She went up and down the slides, climbed all over the place and tried to copy what all the big kids are doing. And when Pearl goes up and down the slides or climbing on anything, that means most of the time Mom does too! She's still a tad too little to do these things by herself without face planting it all the way down the slide, not to mention that she doesn't get what a ledge/edge is and I'm totally paranoid that she's going to fall off the playgrounds and end up in the ER. Nevertheless, we go anyway. I fear the day it snows and we can't go to the park. Pearl's already thrown herself into a tissy fit when it was raining and we didn't go. Oh and I guess sidewalk chalk sort of qualifies as "parky" things to do too, well at least for today because I wanted to show off our artwork (plus we'd already been to the park twice today so I needed something new to do).

Pearl kept laying down on the sidewalk to watch the ducks. I got a bit nervous because a few of the ducks thought this meant she had food for them and well, let's just say we had a couple of close calls with a beak and Pearl's fingers.

The slide is by far Pearl's favorite part about the park. She's getting pretty good at going down all by herself.

Pearl decided to try out her acrobatic skills with a headstand right in the middle of our sidewalk chalk art!

When Jeff got home from work he couldn't resist the fun! It didn't hurt that Pearl ran over to him and got blue chalk all over him too! Actually, Jeff has many fond memories of having his driveway chalked by me (and he propsed to me by chalking my driveway).
Are those the cutest feet you've ever seen?

I guess the only thing to do now is to say I love you Jeff and Pearl!!! Oh, and go to bed - it's way past bedtime (if only blogger was faster at uploading photos)!