Valentine's Day - hearts, chocolates, decorated brown paper bags used as "mailboxes" in schools the world over...
This year, Jack's new school celebrated Valentine's day with much of the above, and a bit more... I think it's important to point out that I planned Jack's Valentines before we knew that he'd be moving schools. The old school didn't do much and didn't encourage activity around the day (or any day), but we always sent in a treat for the kids anyway. This year, we decorated cards that said, "You Make My Heart Sing" and attached them to those super annoying echo microphones. I stole the idea from my friend Katie and improved upon it. I knew that they'd make me the most hated mother in the class, but I thought it would be the most hated mother in the old class.. I'm not sure that I wanted that title in the new class, but whatever - go big or go home. When I handed the bag of microphones to Jack's teacher she looked at me a be wearily and said, "it's ok... we'll manage it."
Jack came home with some really cute cards - a fishbowl with some Swedish fish (I'm glad we're in the same school), lots of well-decorated hearts, some fun use of puffy letters, a bee, a salt-dough heart ornament from Hope, the girl who moved to NYC the next day, some crayons, and a couple of chocolates. Lots of effort was made, he was excited, it was everything that a Pre-School Valentine's Day should be - and more.
The night of Valentine's Day Jack asked me if he could have one of his chocolates. I told him that first he'd have to eat at least half of his dinner. He agree. Not surprisingly, however, he did not eat half of his dinner. No chocolate reward, let's take a bath and go to bed.
The next day, however, he hadn't forgotten about his chocolates. After school I made the same deal with him - eat at least half of your dinner and you can have a chocolate. To my pleasant surprise, he did, in fact, eat more than half of his dinner. Out came the chocolates! One was a foil-wrapped heart, the other a mint green and chocolate heart lollipop. He chose the lollipop. We unwrapped it and I swear, Jack even said, "Yay! A yummy lollipop!" He then proceeded to try to take a bite of it. He immediately took it out of his mouth and said, "this is gross!" The following is an account, as close as I can remember, of what happened:
Me: "Jackson, that is a Valentine lollipop from your new friend Jameson. Jameson is very nice to you, and was very nice to give that you to. You are being incredibly ungrateful right now. You wanted that lollipop, you need to eat it."
Jack: "But Mommy, it's so yucky!"
Me: "Jack, it's not ok to say that it's yucky. It's a very, very nice lollipop. Please eat it now."
Jack: "Mommy, it's so yucky, it's stupid-gross. Try it!"
Me: "Jack, we do not say words like stupid! I'm really surprised by this. And you know I don't eat chocolate so I can't try it."
Jack: "That's ok, because it's NOT chocolate! Try it!"
I begrudgingly took the lollipop from him, and as I was taking it into my mouth to scrape it against my tooth (just to get a taste), I tasted/smelled the ever so familiar essence of crayon wax. That's right, kids, I basically force-fed my child a crayon. Well played, Young family, well played!
Here is a picture of the crayonpop - complete with teeth marks.
Post-script: Today I spoke with Jameson's mom. It turns out that Jameson made an announcement in class telling the children that these were NOT chocolate, but WERE crayons... but for reasons I can't imagine (he was walking around in his own bubble, talking to a neighbor, going potty, doing something else that he wasn't supposed to), Jack missed that tidbit... Well, it serves him well for not listening I guess!
This year, Jack's new school celebrated Valentine's day with much of the above, and a bit more... I think it's important to point out that I planned Jack's Valentines before we knew that he'd be moving schools. The old school didn't do much and didn't encourage activity around the day (or any day), but we always sent in a treat for the kids anyway. This year, we decorated cards that said, "You Make My Heart Sing" and attached them to those super annoying echo microphones. I stole the idea from my friend Katie and improved upon it. I knew that they'd make me the most hated mother in the class, but I thought it would be the most hated mother in the old class.. I'm not sure that I wanted that title in the new class, but whatever - go big or go home. When I handed the bag of microphones to Jack's teacher she looked at me a be wearily and said, "it's ok... we'll manage it."
Jack came home with some really cute cards - a fishbowl with some Swedish fish (I'm glad we're in the same school), lots of well-decorated hearts, some fun use of puffy letters, a bee, a salt-dough heart ornament from Hope, the girl who moved to NYC the next day, some crayons, and a couple of chocolates. Lots of effort was made, he was excited, it was everything that a Pre-School Valentine's Day should be - and more.
The night of Valentine's Day Jack asked me if he could have one of his chocolates. I told him that first he'd have to eat at least half of his dinner. He agree. Not surprisingly, however, he did not eat half of his dinner. No chocolate reward, let's take a bath and go to bed.
The next day, however, he hadn't forgotten about his chocolates. After school I made the same deal with him - eat at least half of your dinner and you can have a chocolate. To my pleasant surprise, he did, in fact, eat more than half of his dinner. Out came the chocolates! One was a foil-wrapped heart, the other a mint green and chocolate heart lollipop. He chose the lollipop. We unwrapped it and I swear, Jack even said, "Yay! A yummy lollipop!" He then proceeded to try to take a bite of it. He immediately took it out of his mouth and said, "this is gross!" The following is an account, as close as I can remember, of what happened:
Me: "Jackson, that is a Valentine lollipop from your new friend Jameson. Jameson is very nice to you, and was very nice to give that you to. You are being incredibly ungrateful right now. You wanted that lollipop, you need to eat it."
Jack: "But Mommy, it's so yucky!"
Me: "Jack, it's not ok to say that it's yucky. It's a very, very nice lollipop. Please eat it now."
Jack: "Mommy, it's so yucky, it's stupid-gross. Try it!"
Me: "Jack, we do not say words like stupid! I'm really surprised by this. And you know I don't eat chocolate so I can't try it."
Jack: "That's ok, because it's NOT chocolate! Try it!"
I begrudgingly took the lollipop from him, and as I was taking it into my mouth to scrape it against my tooth (just to get a taste), I tasted/smelled the ever so familiar essence of crayon wax. That's right, kids, I basically force-fed my child a crayon. Well played, Young family, well played!
Here is a picture of the crayonpop - complete with teeth marks.
Post-script: Today I spoke with Jameson's mom. It turns out that Jameson made an announcement in class telling the children that these were NOT chocolate, but WERE crayons... but for reasons I can't imagine (he was walking around in his own bubble, talking to a neighbor, going potty, doing something else that he wasn't supposed to), Jack missed that tidbit... Well, it serves him well for not listening I guess!
