Valentine's Day Lessons

I learned a few things on Valentine's Day this year.  

1.  Just a simple card, painstakingly folded and taped together with a tiny heart sticker by a three year old, is no longer enough to share with classmates.  McKenzie's classmates sent everything from stickers to toys to sizable bags of candy.  I'll know next year to add a little something.  Luckily, McKenzie was so pumped to share her Spiderman cards (Spiderman is her "favorite guy" although she has never seen any kind of Spiderman movie) that she didn't notice that they were lacking.  

Waiting to pass out her cards with Maggie.

2.  Even babies get Valentine goodies.  Annie, who at 1 is the oldest in her class, received a few treats from her classmates.  I didn't even think to send something.  MOTY 2013!

What's a V-Day pic without a little cookie on the chin?!

3.  My kid is awesome.  During her classroom party, McKenzie silenced the entire room and asked to say a prayer.  She had everyone bow their heads and proceeded to say "Annie's prayer."  It was sort of a song and she may or may not have been speaking in tongues.  I made out the word God, but that's about it.  She knows a couple of different dinner time prayers, but this one was straight from the heart.  Although my stomach hurt from trying to contain my laughter, I was so proud that she had the guts to pray in front of everyone.  That's not something I would do now, at 30.  I pray that she maintains her outgoing spirit as she grows.

McKenzie with Mrs. Lewis, who puts up with her silly antics each week!

 

Only the Beginning

Kids are mean.  We all know this.  Whether it's on purpose or because they don't know any better or whatever, the fact is that kids can be mean.  What's hard is to see kids being mean to your kid.

After lunch today, I took McKenzie into a little indoor playground area at her school.  There were a few kids, siblings I believe, that were playing "crocodile."  For whatever reason, this game sounded fun to McKenzie and she walked up to them and exclaimed, "I'm a crocodile!"  Seriously, she is not shy.  Because of mine and Brant's reserved natures, this blows me away and makes me quite proud of her.  Unfortunately, the kids told her she wasn't a crocodile and refused to let her play.  McKenzie was devestated.  She started crying and I told her that she could be a pretend crocodile if she wanted to be.  So, she dried her tears and told the kids again that she was a crocodile.  And again, they yelled back that she wasn't.  At this point, there were some flailing arms exchanged and I pulled her out.  I explained to McKenzie that those kids weren't being very nice and she should find someone else to play with instead.  To my surprise and delight, she did just that.  She played for a few minutes with another little girl.  However, the two croc kids kept running up to McKenzie and screaming "Rarrrrrh.  You aren't a crocodile!!" in her face.  I watched this happen a few times and was so proud to see McKenzie turn and walk away.  After the little boy did it again right next to me, and I saw the look of fear and annoyance on her face, I said to McKenzie (within earshot of the child's mother and grandmother), "Just walk away if you don't want him doing that to you."  Finally, the child was told by his mother to leave McKenzie alone.

On one hand, I was so proud to see McKenzie gather herself and walk away from these not so nice kids.  I also tried to talk to McKenzie about how it made her feel to not get to play and how she should always let other kids join in her games.  Did any of it sink in? Who knows.  I'm sure it won't be the last time I have the opportunity to teach this lesson.  On the other hand, I was very annoyed with the other mom involved.  You can't really blame the kids for being mean.  They were 3 or 4 years old.  And most likely, McKenzie has been mean in a similar way at school or something.  But I can blame the mom for not paying enough attention to her kids.  If I saw McKenzie acting that way towards another child, I would have removed her from the playground immediately and disciplined her.  This mom was too busy talking to see her kids screaming in my child's face.  Not ok.  And the little girl threw her socks at Annie.  Whoa. It took everything in me to not do anything more than say, "DO NOT throw things at her." I am not a perfect mom.  Never have been.  Never will be.  But I do my best to keep my kids in check when they are around others.  Moral of the story: Sometimes you have to just watch and let your kid fight a battle. But this mama crocodile will step in when the time comes!

DO NOT mess with my baby girl...ahem, baby croc!