Random Thoughts on V-Day 2017

Never one for "Hallmark holidays," it's ironic that I find myself documenting some anecdotes from my Valentine's Day. Then again, any holiday with a I'm-not-four-and-a-half-I'm-almost-five-years-old child is infinitely more exciting and fun than it possibly could be as a singleton or even just a loving wife.  

To celebrate the holiday at school, I helped the Bean put together superhero Valentine's (leftover from last year), and we made red and pink homemade play dough to give to each of her 8 classmates. She wrote each of her friends' names on the cards, and signed them all "FLC."  

At one of the memory care facilities where I supervise graduate students, the activities director (AD) shared with us the Valentine's the residents had painted for loved ones. The AD then included direct quotes from the residents. One woman, a 60-something with Huntington's, said to her husband: "Dear Big Spoon ... See you 'round like a donut." Another resident, a 70-something man with Parkinson's and dementia with Lewy bodies had the AD write, "Please bring home some French fries." I made a mental note to share these cute messages with Alex, and the Bean now thinks these are just the silliest things to say to us. Which I have to admit, is adorable.  

Given that V-Day fell on a Tuesday this year we celebrated with a Beebee-cooked dinner, and homemade dessert of strawberry shortcake. We each went around during dessert to share our thoughts our feelings, to just to say something about Valentine's Day or love. Apparently our preschooler is a poet, as she dramatically declared: "We love love. Our hearts could be true."  

And even though it is supposed to be a day of love and kindness, I find myself fostering feelings of a different kind - for some of the five-year-old boys in the Bean's PreK class. She has now made at least a dozen comments over the last couple months about how he (we'll call him O) doesn't "let" her play with him and another classmate. About how she played Trouble with O, not by the real rules, but according to O's rules. She randomly mentioned that she doesn't think O will come to her birthday party, that it will make her feel sad, but that she's still going to invite him anyway. One morning when I dropped her off after her dentist appointment, he inquired about why she was arriving later than usual. I told him about her dental visit, including her cavity-free report card for keeping the sugar bugs away, and he replied: "Her teeth don't even look shiny." But that's not even the worst of it - the very most awful part is his speech patterns, the ones that our girl has picked up and uses way too often. It's something approximating baby talk, but with this weird intonation pattern and with some difficult to describe facial expressions. It drives me BANANAS, and I find myself constantly reminding her at home to "use your Big Girl voice" or to "talk like a 5 year old." Needless to say, I find myself more often than not talking shit about O to my husband, which I didn't anticipate happening until maybe the preteen years?