mini valentine date

The first thought that "Valentine date" should conjure is that of Dan and me (I would hope) but today's date was with the little man of the house. I decided that Jackson needed a special outing after an entire week of having to play indoors by himself or being passed around to friends and family last week while I was ridiculously sick. Sooo......I made an executive decision to take my little dude out for a pre-Valentine's Day mommy-son date.

Jackson and I have been working on a couple of low-key, top-secret projects lately for the upcoming V-day next week and we had some mail that was outgoing. While I don't understand the attraction, I do know that my boy loves -- and yes, I mean LOVES -- going to the post office! That being the case, I decided to forego the mailbox located just outside my front door and make a special trip to the post office. You should've heard the squeal of delight and seen the sparkle in his eyes when I announced our destination to Jackson!

A flurry of shoes, socks, pants, and jackets (not necessarily in that order) later, we had begun the long walk to the post office. The rain clouds were taking a break from sprinkling their liquid magic on the world below (which was good because I didn't bring an umbrella) and we were taking note of every previously deposited puddle along the way as we walked. I tried to keep the splashing to a minimum since neither one of us had on our rain boots.

I downright forbid picking up rocks on today's walk because the last time we were on a walk together Jackson picked up a rock so he could "throwed it!"...the "rock" turned out to be dog poo. Speaking of dogs, we saw lots of them and Jackson greeted each one of them with a "woof woof" because he speaks fluent dog.

Approximately 58 puddles and 7 dogs later, we arrived at the post office where Jackson hand-delivered the top-secret cargo and helped me put George Washington stamps on each envelope. (Be sure to quiz him later about George as he's hoping to impress a few people with his newly acquired presidential history knowledge.)You can't have a date without some type of food or drink and Jackson is a little young to start on coffee so I took him to the Edmonds Bakery on our way home where he got to pick out his favorite cookies (which just happen to also be MY favorite cookies!)...chocolate chip. The lady who sold us the cookies threw in an extra cookie for free because of how excited Jackson was. She also gave him a free sample of a blueberry doughnut. The sample was about the size of a silver dollar but Jackson savored every crumb and made it last nearly the whole walk home. All of that savoring put a cramp in his puddle-jumping and doggy-greeting but he still had a good time.

Once we got home, it was officially cookies and milk time and our mommy-son date drew to a crumb-dropping, chocolate-covered close.I can't wait for our next date!