Jewelry Makes the Best Valentine's Day Gift

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting up one of the other moms as we waited in line to sign our kids out of preschool when my boy ran up to me with a big grin on his face.

"Mommy!" he exclaimed. His tone shifted to mildly flirtatious as he sing-songed, "I have a present for you..."

I glanced down out of the corner of my eye, still kibbutzing as I did so, and saw that he was shoving a twisted-up, chocolate-streaked white napkin at me.

"You're bringing me your garbage?!" I said, thinking that calling it 'a present' was a clever new tactic he was using to get me to do his dirty work.

"No," he replied. His tone suggested that he was a little annoyed that I had been suspicious of his motives. "Open it!" he implored.

I found the least soiled edges of the makeshift gift wrap and pulled them back to reveal a white plastic ring--you know, the "adjustable" kind with the little gap in back--sporting a giant red heart. It was an inch and a half tall, an inch and a half wide, and had white scalloped edges.

"Wow!" I said. "For me?"

"Yup. It was on my cupcake, and I wanted to give it to you because I love you," he said.

"You thought of me?" I asked, touched.

"Actually, it was Trevor's idea," he confessed.

"So did all the kids save their rings for their moms?" I asked.

"No. Just me," he said.

After my germ-o-phobic side fixated briefly on the likelihood that he had licked the icing and crumbs from my gift before presenting it, I slipped it on my right ring finger and wore it all day--with pride.

It's now sitting on my dresser in the open-topped popsicle-stick box the same young love made for me while he was helping his dad with some woodworking a few Saturdays ago. Under normal circumstances, I stealthily throw such trinkets in the trash while the kids are sleeping, but just this once, I've made an exception. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but in certain circumstances, plastic reigns supreme.