Wordless Wednesday: These People Make Me Look Bad

So I finally got around to going through the wee ones' Valentine's bags from school. We don't keep or eat the candy or the valentines themselves, but tons of people are now sending in pencils or notepads or other actually semi-useful goodies that I do want to keep. Thus I spent this weekend making a garbage and a keep pile from each of the wee ones' bags.

Then I got to this.

Seriously, people? You're making me look bad. I had Mister Man slap on a piece of chocolate to each of his valentines I got half price at Wal-M@rt the day before in the car on the way to school. And this is what you create. An iP*d valentine. From scratch. It even has an appropriate playlist. I hear this was customized for each child.

I may have to step it up a notch next year.

A Valentine's Surprise

I've lamented before how Mister Man's Asperger's means that he just doesn't get things sometimes. He doesn't care about the things that to me you would want to care about - and admittedly there are times it drives me nuts. Little Miss, on the other hand, has a personality that just draws people to her, and things come naturally to her. She's lucky in that things tend to come easy and right for her.

Last night, I - the star parent of the week - realized that the wee ones needed to write out Valentine's cards for all their classmates. I set each child down and explained what they needed to do. I placed the class lists for each of them on their homework desks and pointed out how they needed to write a valentine to each classmate using the list I provided. I suggested they mark each name as they do it, and I showed them where to write the to and the from.

Then I walked into the kitchen to make dinner.

Little Miss bounced into the room less than five minutes later. Mommy, I'm done! she squealed with delight. I wasn't surprised that she had managed to write out all 23 valentines in less time than Mister Man wrote out his 16. I continued setting the table while waiting for Mister Man to finish.

As they finished dinner and cleared up their places, I popped into the homework room to gather up the valentines. I peeked at Little Miss's first valentine and saw that she'd spelled her name wrong. And the student's name wrong. I looked at the next and the next - over half of them had misspellings. Bad misspellings. She was trying to phonetically spell names after looking at the list to see who was next. Oh, and she had forgotten one of her friends.

I called her into the room and pointed out again how to fix the valentines - checking the spelling versus the list, writing carefully to make sure no letters were backwards, and oh I don't know - counting to make sure she hasn't missed anyone. After every card, she'd run over to me to check it. Most of them were right after that, but some she had to check again to make sure she'd spelled them correctly - again.

With dread, I walked over to Mister Man's desk. And there I saw the class list open with a very neat X next to each name. And one name crossed out, because apparently the boy had left the school last month. Every card was written neatly, and he'd even done the teachers' cards. Somehow, he knew to use the big cards for the teachers, something I'd forgotten to mention - and the Little Miss completely missed.

I smiled to myself, realizing that I need to not underestimate my boy. No, things don't necessarily come easy to him, but with some cues, he'll figure it out and do just fine. It's a lesson I need to take to heart - and I couldn't ask for a better Valentine's Day present.

(And yes, those are homemade crayons that we put onto each card with a Happy Valentine's Day! label. Silly me, I didn't do the math to think about how long it would take to make 40 of those suckers when you can only make four at a time. Fortunately, I have an awesome husband who took on that job!)

I am also giving away a Progresso Souper You Debut gift pack here.

Oh, and while you're at it, I finally set up a Facebook Fan page for my blog. It's way overdue. Go like me on Facebook if you would so I can get an official username - once I get enough likes. You can also follow me on Twitter, too, if you're so inclined.

A Cheerios Valentine - For The Birds

It is cold here in Chicago. It's cold enough that we no longer have to send winter gear with the wee ones because they are no longer sent outside for recess. It's a mixed blessing.

On top of that - literally - came the blizzard that has buried everything. Driving home, a hardware store has a sign reminding us that birds are starving right now because their food supply is hidden. Little Miss had a great idea to help them.

With Valentine's Day around the corner, they've been crafting it up in kindergarten, and she's been trying to find ways to do something similar at home. She suggested that we make a valentine for the birds because they need someone to love them this winter.

After we discussed the inability of birds to read, we tried to figure out what they'd like. We decided to make a valentine for them out of Cheerios shaped like a heart - because we thought birds might maybe recognize shapes. After we scratched our heads for awhile, we hit upon it.

I found a white ribbon that we used to string Cheerios. We quickly discovered that it was far easier with our ribbon to use a piece of tape to make the end more conducive to stringing, just like a shoelace. Little Miss had a blast putting it together.

Once we'd strung our ... lots and lots of Cheerios (we started out counting, but we gave up after we lost count a couple times), we found an open place in our yard where we knew birds fly. We very carefully arranged it into the shape of a heart, and then we waited for the birds to come snack at their very special valentine.

So what are you doing special for Valentine's Day?

I am also giving away a Progresso Souper You Debut gift pack here.

Oh, and while you're at it, I finally set up a Facebook Fan page for my blog. It's way overdue. Go like me on Facebook if you would so I can get an official username - once I get enough likes. You can also follow me on Twitter, too, if you're so inclined.

In the interest of full disclosure, Cheerios sent me two boxes of Cheerios and a spring themed gift pack that really makes me wish it were spring now. There is no compensation involved as a member of the Cheerios Blogger Circle.

Thanks, Dear!

So I'm sure you've all been waiting with bated breath to see what my husband got me for Valentine's Day. I mean, c'mon, it's a special day, right? And he's learned.

He knows not to do flowers. The cats jump up on the counters and eat them. Every time. And I'm only into really good chocolate, but he doesn't know what that is, so he avoids pretty much all chocolate. I don't really do cards, so he no longer sends me cards. And thankfully, he never thought lingerie made for a good Valentine's Day gift.

Instead, here's what he got:



What, you don't think the basket full of plastic sticks is a good gift?

Oh. Yeah. Only the sticks are left. We ummm (and by "we" I mean my husband and the wee ones AND me but mostly the wee ones, in particular Mister Man) sorta ate it all already.

Originally it was a fruit bouquet. It had lots of chocolate dipped strawberries (yum yum yum yum!). And heart and flower shaped pineapples. And cute little grapes that look like ferns. Or something. Did I mention the chocolate dipped strawberries?

Yeah, sorry I didn't get a picture before it all disappeared, but I promise to try harder next year. Yeah, I know. I'm presumptuous, aren't I?

So what did you get?