Ah, Valentines Day. Dawson has forever been girl crazy, always swooning over girls for as long as I can remember, and claiming stake on multiple "girlfriends." The Boyz filled out their valentines after school, and made me laugh by the thought that went into it. Daws saved the Skittle Valentines that said, "Your a super friend." for specific friends and was able to categorize his whole class into the 4 different sayings provided in the box. Lovely.

Tonight, we celebrated Valentines with a steak dinner and some family togetherness. Dawson worked on a homemade, very special and intricate valentine for Eliza. She is the girl we have been hearing the most about, she is the sheriff's daughter (obviously won't work, due to my long criminal history), and she is an older woman....4th grader.

She just recently moved in a few blocks up the street, and now rides the Boyz bus. Apparently Dawson greets her each morning by saying, "Hey, Hottie." to which she replies, " S'Up." Except for today, when she said, "Hey Hottie." and he just said, "Uh." cause it caught him off guard. It sure sounds like love.

This afternoon, when Daws asked if he could make her a special Valentine, I said sure, but it was time to drop the Fiddy Cent act, and Dave said he couldn't say "I love you." or "I want to marry you." He was a little lost at what to write, but then pulled out a beautiful card from the heart.
 
 Dear Eliza, Will you be my Valentine? I really like the way you are nice to everybody and I love that you are always smiling. Love, Dawson.

He decorated it and was very proud of it.

Over dinner we were enjoying some delightful conversation when Dawson admitted that Dylan had actually spotted Eliza first and was the first to love her. This really surprised me because Dyl makes choking/vomiting noises when Daws spews his love talk, and gets really, really mad if Dawson teases him about liking a girl. But Dyl just agreed and kept on chewing his steak. Then, Dawson nonchalantly informed us that he had to trade Dyl for, Hayden and Claricee, two 2nd Graders for the rights to Eliza.
I was laughing so hard, but Dyl just kept chewing and agreeing, as if the trading and bartering for women was a regular conversation at our dinner table.

Dyl finally spoke up and confessed that he still thought she was cute, but he was happy with their trade. Dave reminded him that Hayden was actually related, but Dyl was back to his dinner, and Dawson was rambling about his 27 girl friends, but Eliza is the very top of the list. We live in a small enough town, I hope this doesn't become a pattern when they get older.