Squagon insisted that we start handing out the chocolate hearts… right now!

Last week, when he asked me about the meaning of Valentines Day, I made the mistake of telling him that humans use this day to show each other love by sharing chocolate hearts and love notes. He spent all weekend madly making crayon kiss marks all over the bag of peanuts used for the squirrels at our local park. He begged me to find some chocolate hearts to hand out, but I then had to explain to him about how chocolate was not good for the wildlife. He seemed fine with this… I thought!

I woke up this morning to find Squagon in a panic! There had been a bag of animal friendly chocolate hearts I’d hidden beneath a bale of hay, to share with my barnyard babies on the big day… and my small friend had somehow discovered it. 

Apparently, in his rush to open the bag he’d found, the bag tore in half, sending chocolate hearts flying all over the barnyard. The babies went nuts, devouring many of the hearts before they ever hit the ground. By the time I walked out of the barn, there were babies sprawled out in every direction, snoring contentedly, with full bellies and chocolate smudges all over their adorable faces. 

In the middle of the mess stood Squagon, looking as if he had committed some heinous crime. Head bowed low, shoulders slumped in shame, my little romantic stood holding a lone chocolate heart, still neatly wrapped up tight in its packaging. When I bent down in front of him, Squagon offered me the tiny red gift… and promptly burst into tears!

My tiny Casanova told the story of how he’d found the candy and simply tried to open the bag, to retrieve one of the tiny hearts inside for this mornings post. He pulled out what looked like an attempt at a love note, though it now was so covered in chocolate smudge marks that I could not read the name of the recipient. Things had gone horribly wrong, somehow, and now the barnyard was a mess, the chocolate was pretty much all gone, and he knew it had been all his fault!

I scooped the little guy up in my lap, gave him a comforting nose boop, and handed him a tissue for his tears. I told him about a similar time, in my own distant past, when I tried opening a family size bag of Peanut M&M’s for my kids and the bag split, sending candy across the entire kitchen. It happens!

As it also happens, I had purposely put the bag of candy that Squagon found, underneath that bale of hay. I thought it might be fun to see how long it would take the babies to find the goodies, but now I felt bad, as I’d no idea this would happen. Now I felt badly!

Squagon begged me to give the last chocolate heart to you guys, as he felt that it was the only right thing to do, in this situation. Tearfully, he offered me the candy, looking so downtrodden as he turned to climb down off my lap. 

Hang on, I said, it so happens that I have hidden three bags of sweeties in the barnyard. You just didn’t find the others yet, so let us tidy up the mess in the yard, as the babes are snoozing… it won’t take much. Then I’ll show you where the other bags are hidden, so that you can take everyone on a hunt for them later… those candies can be handed out for gifts.

It didn’t actually take that long to clean up the wrappers, and no barnyard babies were harmed in the eating frenzy that occurred here… Dinky and I will both swear to this!