It was a good weekend to hunker down, what with the windchill dropping into the double digits below zero. Weather like this makes one supremely grateful for having a roof over (and four solid walls around) one's head. We spent Saturday completing valentine-related activities: baking and decorating valentine cookies and getting valentine cards ready for the upcoming class parties.
As a sixth grader, Caleb doesn't do the whole valentine exchange thing, but Maren and Chase both brought home lists of all their classmates' names. We had already bought the necessary cards. Chase asked for Transformers cards, which have incomprehensible messages like "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings, Valentine." Never mind that Chase doesn't have a Transformer, has never watched a movie or TV show about Transformers, and barely even knows what the dang things do. They're cool! On the other hand, Maren settled on Snoopy valentines after I firmly said, "NO!" to Bratz. She didn't seem all that disappointed in my refusal - maybe because her exposure (at least at home) to Bratz is as limited as Chase's is to Transformers. Please don't ask me why Transformers are okay and Bratz aren't. I'm still trying to figure out my reasoning on that.
Maren handily finished addressing and signing her Valentines in a few minutes, but Chase labored over his for quite awhile. I told Chase I would address his cards for him. When you're 4 years old, writing your name 24 times in a small space seems enough punishment without copying 24 names you've never written before. Plus, Chase hasn't quite mastered the concept of writing left to right, top to bottom. If he started to run out of space when writing his name, he'd put the next few letters on top of the first two, and finish with the last one in a pyramid-style signature. One can only imagine how his classmates' names would be deciphered when written in that form.
Incidentally, none of Maren's classmates had to be identified with a last initial - no names are repeated in the entire class list, which is kind of unusual. In contrast, Chase's class had two Olivias and two Ethans... and one Abbysinia. Not sure which is better (or worse) - to have a name that is so common that your last initial is needed to identify you, or to have a name that is so different that most people have never heard it, or know how to spell it.
4 comments:
What?!? Were there no bicycle-themed Valentine's Day cards? You know, like, "Let's ride tandem, Valentine" or "I'm as lonely as a unicycle without you, Valentine"?
I think Neerdmans grabbed those all up before we could get to the store.
"Let's ride tandem" sounds a little racey to me. Clever, though.
Yeah, Christopher wanted to sign all 11 of his Valentine's cards, and with his full first name. He hasn't quite mastered how big or small to make letters when writing-- especially on this teeny card, so some of them are signed by "Christopher" and some of them are signed by "CHRIST" and then on the second line, "opher". I'm sure it'll make his Baptist daycare proud. Or worried??
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