After child one and child two comes child three. In some ways child three is spoiled because she has two parents AND two older siblings. In other ways, she is not spoiled because people forget that Valentine’s Day is still a thing in first grade.
Last night I had an “Oh CRAP!” moment when I remembered that, “Oh, she probably wants to hand out Valentines at her class party tomorrow.” It’s not like I’d thought of nothing. Laylee and Magoo had been making chocolate lollipops to sell to earn money for a school trip. And whenever one looked slightly weird, we’d save it for Wanda to hand out to her friends.
The plan was to give them each one of the bargain basement lollipops… attached to a Valentine’s card. I hadn’t planned to be super creative, or even Pinteresty. I had planned to buy some NKOTB or Smurf cards at the grocery store, as I was raised to do, and call it good. But I forgot.
So, I came to Wanda. “Oh man. I totally forgot about Valentine’s cards for your class.”
“Oh. It’s fine. I made these!”
She proceeded to pull out 25 lined 3×5 notecards on which she had written the names of every student in her class. She was in the process of writing a note to each one, most of which said, “You are an awsome freind. Happy valentims day. Love, Wanda.”
And she was fiercely proud of her Valentines.
“Do you want to look at the list your teacher sent home with the names of kids in your class?” I asked.
“Mom!” she looked affronted, “I’ve been in the same class with these kids for MONTHS! I know their names.”
“Just in case you forget someone?”
“MOM!”
“Well maybe look at it to make sure you spelled all their names correctly.”
“MOM! I’ve been looking at their names for MONTHS!”
“Okay.”
Now, to be honest, some of the name spellings on her cards look pretty funky. I didn’t check them against the list but it is totally possible that some of the parents just chose to spell their kids names funny. If you do this, I want to know why. Seriously, answers are in order. For her entire life, your kid will have to say, “No. I spell Lucy L-O-O-X-I-E.” What is the net positive there?
I asked Wanda, “Do you want me to print some Valentiney things off the internet so you can glue them onto the backs of the cards?”
She did. But they couldn’t say anything about kissing. RE: Gross.
And she worked on them all night, with the help of her siblings during the assembly phase, in what Dan referred to as a “Valentims Sweatshop.”
And they’re kind of perfect.
If those kids ever need to cram for a test about how awsome of a freind they are, they are totally set with flash cards.
