Sometime ago, I related the first tale of Ethan kissing on the playground. With a girl named Jeni in his class. We haven’t heard any other tales of this sort of behavior.

Until now.

It’s valentine’s day, right, so when the kids came home and unloaded all their valentine’s day party look, the kitchen table was pretty much covered with cards, candy, pictures, candy, cards, candy, empty wrappers, and some candy.

I was trying to get some more details about the parties and I picked through the cards and inspected what other mom’s had gotten their kids to give for valentines. (I was definitely the worst/cheapest/busiest mom, btw. My kids gave very generic valentines, with no extra goodies attached, in the midst of handmade, boxes of nerds, a barrel of monkeys (big hit, btw), temporary tatoos, lollipops, etc.) I noticed a couple of things from Jeni. Not valentines, or rather, not the valentines that were probably given with everyone else’s — a drawing that was probably done in the afternoon. It was a picture of dolphins with little hearts sprinkled everywhere. Very cute. I noticed it (and btw, he’s always drawing pictures for his friends, and bringing home drawings made for him by friends, so nothing unusual here) and commented on it to Ethan, and somehow got into this convoluted conversation:

Ethan: Me and Jeni love each other.

Ethan: But we had to go behind the tire.

me: Behind the tire?

Ethan: Yes. Because Mrs. T. doesn’t like it when we give loves.

James: Give loves?

Ethan: Yeah. So then Mrs. T couldn’t SEE US!

First of all, I’m pretty much dying at this point, having to cover my mouth to keep from giggling and smiling from the cuteness of it all. But I also wanted to know *what* exactly was going on behind the tire. I am very cognizant of the fact that he has not actually said “kiss” anywhere.

I tried to get more information and had to muddle through him pointing at his mouth (it was dinnertime) to indicate he was chewing and couldn’t talk, muttering, “I don’t want to TALK about it..” with stoic 5 year old rolling of the eyes, when finally:

me: What exactly went on behind the tire?

Ethan: We rubbed cheeks.

This is very characteristic of Ethan. He is a very snuggly boy, always up for a hug and a cuddle, always hugging his Pookie bear, and sometimes just grabbing my hand and rubbing it gently on his cheek. Lately, his compliment of choice is, “You’re the best, mommy/daddy.” We hear that at least half a dozen times a day. We’re not complaining 🙂

He’s a marshmellowy sweetie.

Just like his daddy.