Valentine’s Day may have originated as a day to celebrate the romantic love in our lives; but for most moms, I’m guessing there’s no Valentine that melts your heart quite the way your child’s Valentine does. Those carefully printed exclamations of love, crooked hearts, and still-sticky works of art (you’re never quite sure if the stickiness should be attributed to overzealous gluestick application or the strawberry jam from breakfast) – those are the things that set our hearts a-fluttering. The tiny cupids who call us mom know just how to pull at our heartstrings.

A child’s Valentine is truly from the heart. I’m not saying our partners aren’t sincere in their Valentine wishes, but you have to admit that there’s something especially innocent and charming about a toddler’s love note. Even more touching than the Valentine itself, is the delivery. My daughter’s approach to saying ‘I love you’ swings between a boisterous proclamation and a foot-shuffling mumble. From either end of the spectrum, her words are completely … well … from the heart, and they hit their mark every time.

I’m lucky. Sometimes it feels like it’s Valentine’s Day every day with my daughter. She’s “all grown up” at eight years old, but we still say ‘I love you’ dozens of times each day. Our good mornings and goodbyes and goodnights overflow with traded declarations of affection. I adore the way we tussle over who will say the last ‘I love you’ each night – each of us vying to be the most smitten.

In the end, there really isn’t any way to define or contain our love, is there? Words like boundless and unconditional and undying spring easily to mind, but how do you explain such airy concepts to child? Sometimes we play the ‘I-love-you-more-than’ game … “I love you more than puppies,” “I love you more than chocolate,” “I love you more than the moon and the stars,” “I love you more than …” Could there be anything sweeter than playing at finding new ways to say that your love is bigger than any other love in the world?

We wish each of you a Valentine’s Day full of sweetness, hugs, and sticky kisses. We hope you get to indulge your inner sap and say all those saccharine things that seem a bit over the top on other days of the year. We send our own virtual X’s and O’s out to each mom who is doing her best and deserves all the adoration we can deliver.

Happy Valentine’s Day, moms. Hope you get to spend it with your little cherubs.

Image Credit: Brittany K