A Parent's Valentine: Keeping Romance Alive

• Indulge your lover's vice—cigars, horses, lottery tickets, women (just kidding).
• Get him a toy—video game, itty-bitty cell phone, balsa wood glider.
• Let him sleep late.
• Do his least favorite chore. And just smile graciously when he thanks you.
• Dance together in the living room.
• Take him out for dinner and dancing and don't make him decide where to go.
• Go to the adult-rated drive-in (any drive-in will do in a pinch).
• Display your best physical attribute (yes, ladies, that means losing the nursing bra and comfy shoes).
• Pamper him. How about coffee in bed and a ride to the post office?
• Give him a full-body massage with no expectations.
• Give him two sporting event tickets—especially if you don't like to go (and then force yourself to go).
• Tickle his funny bone.
• Make him a list of the sexiest things about him: His long lean thighs, his deep-set blue eyes, the way his hands slide over your torso, perhaps his laugh, his wink... OK, make your own list!
• Make yourself a list of your own sexiest attributes, stick it in your bottom drawer for easy access, and don't let him see it, ever.

It's hard to believe that you'll ever get back there—to that point where lust and romance fills your body and you can't get enough of him, and he can't get enough of you. Patience, my friend. This is just a season in your lives. It doesn't matter if the burner is temporarily off. The pilot light is on. Turn up the gas.