The Third Annual Love Mobile

Discussing love with a two- and four-year-old can be a challenging task.

Does anyone else recognize this dress? It blows my mind that Elle is now wearing it!

It has officially become a holiday tradition for us to pause long enough in early February to make a construction paper heart for all the lovely people and things in our lives. Last year's hearts dangled overhead in the playroom all year, complete with Maya's still-incomprehensible declaration of love for "coconuts."

While the old mobile hangs from the cupboard, Maya focuses on the pom poms.

This year our hearts dangle in the dining room, a resting place selected after much deliberation and many false starts on the part of Maya. In addition to all of her people, Maya added a heart for "myself, because I am special," and "Thanksgiving" because it is the best, and "Candyland." Elliot made one for "bunnies and goldfish" because they are yummy and "Goodnight Moon."

Elliot's Love Mobile

We took a lot of time filling out these hearts. The list of loved ones is long, as is the list of loved food, loved books, and loved jokes. With so much love in their lives, the girls find it difficult (along with the rest of us!) to understand exactly what this word means.

I face similar blank looks and extra questions while reading them the book "When I Fall Down." This book strives to impart the nature of gravity to the very young. One would think the constant entertainment value of a tossed milk cup or the frequent aggravation of a skinned knee would be enough to illustrate the point. But no, the very fact that gravity is a constant immutable, force makes it difficult to identify as a specific thing.

Maya's Love Mobile

Like gravity, love thoroughly surrounds these girls, both the real thing from all of us plus the light-hearted love of horses, Dora, and corn dogs. Because of this saturation, the tradition almost felt like an exercise in the obvious.

Luckily they just loved using feathers, pom poms, and glitter to decorate the egg cartons Maya selected to be the base, so it was still a worthwhile project.