Water and Squishy Hearts

Wednesday Night at bedtime I was finally reading the note Dan's preschool teacher had sent home Tuesday at noon.  It turns out that Dan was supposed to have 16 Valentines ready for his party the next morning.  Usually I have spare ones around but, in a past cleaning frenzy, I must have gotten rid of them.  I did not want to get up early and go buy Valentines and so I cut out sixteen paper hearts and wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" on one side.  I offered to draw happy faces instead but Dan preferred letters.  Then, my amazing sweet boy sat down and wrote his name 17 times (he goofed on one and was very upset and so we made one more).  He taped smarties to sixteen Valentines.  He did it all before it was time to go.  I was very impressed.

I helped in preschool that day and we went on a field trip to the Post Office and then we had the party.  Dan started to cry when he was decorating his Valentine bag because he couldn't make the heart as perfectly as he wanted.  He didn't seem to love the party -- he cried again after delivering his Valentines.  But, at home afterwards, Dan LOVED the Valentines he'd been given.  He raved over how nice Ms. Tonya is and how wonderful that people gave him all of that candy.  He is going through the candy rather quickly. 

Through all of this I learned something about Jake.  When we were talking about the Valentines before school Jake said "Mom, I didn't like to do Valentines because it made me nervous".  He knew that Valentine's Day would be different.  It would disrupt his routine.  He'd have to hand things out.  Now I know why it was so hard for me to get him to write his name and why I often found it easier to fill in his name myself.  Hopefully he'll feel like doing his own this year.  You'll learn more about Jake tomorrow for his birthday.

Last night we had soft pretzels for dinner.  It may not be overly nutritious but we made it fun.  Tia helped me and so she spelled her whole name.  We made first initial pretzels for everyone else but I decided you didn't need a picture of ALL of them.  Derek wasn't home and so he didn't get one.  Poor Derek.

Finally, I'll end with a few tidbits of information from Dan.  He brought me a package of fruit snacks from his Valentine bag and said "It says no milk, no eggs, no peanuts, just water and squishy hearts."  Then he informed me that "Santa comes whenever we need him".  I said "Oh, really?" and he replied that "Yes, when we need some toys, we just ask him and when it is dark he brings them to us".  So now you know how to get new toys.

Okay, I had to add the S.  I thought it was superb.