Valentines

Silje typically is a label girl. She loves the Disney Princesses and the Littlest Pet Shop, etc. I was surprised, then, when she didn’t ask for a little box of valentines from Walmart for her class, but asked for a stack of computer paper.

This didn’t happen in a day. In fact, she started this project weeks ago. She drew a picture for every kid in her class, and wrote on a colored card a valentine’s message for each of the adults she comes across at school from her main teacher, to aids, to the school secretary, and probably the lunch lady.

Of course, these aren’t random pictures. Each picture took her much thought, as she thought about what each person liked. The one for Ellie made me chuckle, as she and Ellie have had many conversations on “Hello Kitty.”

“Ben likes sea creatures” and “Anders likes to play catch” was what we’ve been hearing for weeks. It has been a project she has planned herself, and executed herself. She was given a list of names from her teacher, but that was the most help. Everyone got a note inside. She wrote out everything herself, with surprisingly few spelling errors. Tonight we’ll attach a tiny bag of candy to each Valentine, as an extra treat.

My hope is that Silje knows how proud we are of her. I hope when she goes to school, and sees all those “label” valentines, she doesn’t regret her weeks of work. I hope she just enjoys the ones she gets, because I know she will!