Sweet Valentine’s

The first word that my five year old daughter ever wrote was “love”.  She wrote it with a pink marker, wearing a pink dress and pink tights.  Shortly there-after she learned how to draw a heart.  Everyone in the family possesses a pile of notes from Lila covered with hearts, love, and lots of pink.

Being the owner of a bookstore that sells cards, I had prepared for Valentine’s Day several weeks ago.  I had plenty of cards, classroom Valentine’s and Valentine’s books in stock.  I was looking forward to coming in with Lila to pick out some cards to give her classmates and friends.

A couple of weeks ago a friend on the bus told her that she can give Valentine’s to everyone in her class.  She started putting materials in a bag when she got home.  Her “kit” included paper, scissors, tape, markers, string and toilet paper.  I sat by quietly and watched.

She drew two hearts and cut them out.  She colored them both and wrote LOVE on one of the hearts.  She taped one of the edges, put toilet paper in the middle and taped all around.  Then she cut two smaller hearts, colored them, wrote “To: Barbara, Love: Lila” on one, and taped them together.  Finally, she used the string and some more tape to attach the smaller heart (which I learned was the tag) to the larger heart.  The whole process took about an hour.

I asked her what she was doing and she said she was making Valentine’s for everyone in her class.  I told her we could set a goal of doing one every day since we had plenty of days left.  She liked that plan and put her kit away for dinner.

For the last week, Lila has very thoughtfully created one Valentine per day for her classmates.  She considers their favorite colors and shapes before she begins.  And for an hour every day I have been able to look at my daughter and remember what Valentine’s Day is all about.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!