Valentines Day Grogu Cupid

Happy Valentines Day 2021

I once drew napkins to gratify my sons’ wishes, now my goal might be to make them cringe. Is this my job as a parent of teens? 

We might all be tired of Baby Yoda, but it seemed like the obvious choice.

Happy Valentines 2020

We Ship Baby Yoda and Pikachu for Valentines Day:

I really aspired to coming up with something less predictable than this, but predictable was the best I could do today.

Our son commented that there might be a lot of romantic fan fic out there about these two. I cannot confirm or deny.

See previous Valentines napkins at this link

Sentimental Monster Selfie

Valentine’s Day is arriving far behind schedule here at Daily Napkins. 

Sadly, my staying up late to finish a drawing privileges have been revoked, probably permanently. Once I miss the deadline of the actual holiday, I look at the thing and say something like, “why can’t I even manage to indicate clearly which monster is in front of the other monster?” Then the motivation to display my awkward drawing declines further. Clearly, I was fooling myself about how fun it was going to be to draw all those heads with horns jutting out of them.

But my kids are looking forward to the next Godzilla movie. (Featuring King Ghidora, the three headed gold dragon creature, just in case that needs to be said)

And I am always happy to attempt a peaceful-resolution-between-kaiju sort of image as we could use more of that sort of friendliness between our resident monsters.

(You can see some of our long napkin history of Godzilla posing with other large monsters at the Godzilla section.)

Kraken Loves Cthulhu for Valentines Day

Kraken Loves Cthulhu for Valentine’s Day:

Valentine’s Day has been pretty uneventful for us. The day went officially unacknowledged at both kids’ schools. Gone are the days of homemade Valentines for the whole class collected in a decorated shoebox. Both kids and my spouse claim to have little or no interest in chocolate, so not much gratification there either. 

But I couldn’t let the day pass completely without comment. 

We are still on a bit of a tentacle kick around here. Cthulhu mostly, but in a pinch, a Kraken will do. 

My exacting younger son informed me that the Kraken is too octopuslike and not squidy enough. He also suggested that the ultimate Valentine’s Day image would be of two roses exchanging or sniffing a human. Perhaps next year?

And I just want to point out that I have not assumed the gender of either tentacle owner. (My kids have been embroidering the “did you just assume my gender meme” lately. More to come on that later, I am afraid)

View our previous valentines here

Alien Loves Predator for Valentines Day

‪A classic for Valentines Day:

Alien Loves Predator...my kids love both....everyone loves candy. ‬

Puppy Bouquet

A very belated happy Valentine's Day image for my younger son:

Valentine's Day went mostly unacknowledged at our house over the weekend. Our younger son exchanged cards in the classroom and indulged in a school-condoned sugar orgy way back on Thursday the 11th. By the time we got to Sunday the 14th, both kids had terrible colds, and we were all fairly unmotivated.

I had started this drawing before the weekend, but was too busy doling out hot tea, Kleenex, sympathy and Tylenol to finish it until today.

Puppies are pretty much the thing our younger loves the most. Due to his father's allergies and his mother's caregiving fatigue, his love is still unrequited so far.

And I had to add insult to injury by telling him that if we ever do manage to get a dog, it is unlikely to be a puppy. Having only marginally survived the infancy of two humans in our house, I don't think I could sign on to superintend to babyhood of a dog.

But, as he pointed out in his 9 year old wisdom, "Puppies are basically just small dogs!"
So here we have a great many very small dogs.

(This image was based on the Thinkgeek "Plush Puppy Bouquet")

Insipid Valentine with Hamsters

Valentines Day Nom Nom Nom:
Fluffy Rodents Gnawing on Love.

One can never go wrong with hamsters, a cookie and a purple backdrop.
If only that combination worked so well in the real world.

My sons find Parry Gripp songs endlessly diverting... particularly the "Nom Nom Nom" song.  The hamster on the left is based on the opener from that video. He is, however, eating something much more healthy on YouTube.  I briefly considered drawing heart shaped broccoli, but fortunately came to my senses before it was too late.

Could this be the appropriate follow-up to the Shark Valentine?

Valentines Shark

Love Bites.
Have a Jawsome Valentines Day.
You're Fin-tastic Valentine.
I Would Bite at the Chance to be Your Valentine.
You're My Chum, Valentine.

Shall I stop now?

The kids in second grade are decorating bags today during class for the collection of their valentines tomorrow. So, clearly there will be no avoidance of the Valentines topic despite the fact that the actual day falls fortuitously on the weekend.

What is the right look for a valentine for 8 year old boy? My previous forays into this topic have not been terribly successful. But I thought I could not go too far wrong with a shark.

Ansel was not impressed with my pathetic attempt at a satiny fabric draped on the floor. "Mom, what is the shark laying on?" he asked this morning. I could only reply, "On some bad drawing."

You can see the last year's forays into bad Valentinery here.

Satan, Grim Reaper and Two Devils

Every first grade class at my sons' school does a poetry project around Valentines Day where they respond to the phrase, "Inside my heart lives..."  After reading several years worth of these poems posted on the bulletin board, I can offer the general observation that most often the kids describe their hearts as being occupied by pets, furry toys, the love of their family, rainbows and other comfortingly warm and  fuzzy things. 

Not so with my sons.  Our first son's poem four years ago was exclusively populated by his obsession of the time: Star Wars characters. Our second son has upped the ante by name-checking both the Prince of Darkness and Death himself. 

I set myself the task of making these particular heart inhabitants look warm and fuzzy.  Unfortunately, I misremembered the last two supporting characters as "devils" instead of "demons."  Perhaps I made this mistake because I really wanted to draw Tasmanian Devils instead of having to come up with cute cartoon devils.

The poem has been stapled on a public wall at school for several days, but I have not heard from the school psychologist yet.

He must be busy.

Robocops Observe Valentines Day

One last ridiculous Valentines offering:

The kids have been asking to see the Robocop remake. Their father and I offered somewhat facetiously that maybe they should see the 1987 version first.  They rejected this idea....because we suggested it, no doubt.

I suspect that both movies are basically inappropriate for middle and lower school boys...  But the previews are filled with many enticing explosions and gunfire...and a guy wearing a suit with most of his face covered, which is somehow an endlessly compelling feature for our sons.

I'm not sure really why a combination of Robocops 1987 and 2014 seemed appropriate to me for Valentines day.  It was probably just perversity born of staying home for most of the week with a whining, feverish seven year old boy.

I did think it was best to leave it ambiguous as to whether it is a hand-off, a confrontation  or a burgeoning cyborg romance.  The kids, needless to say, were unimpressed.

Godzilla with Sweetheart Teeth for Valentines Day

Godzilla wishes you a Valentines Day that is so sweet that your teeth hurt.

As you can see by the kids' card for school, the Sweetheart candies were a theme.
Not that anyone actually ate any of them.