I Love You Because

Today I was invited to my daughter’s class, along with the other mothers, to join in a Mother’s Day celebration with the children.   I didn’t know what to expect save that my daughter was very excited about it.

When I arrived I got hug after hug from my daughter—which is a little atypical of her, she’s more of a drive by hugger, moving on to the next thing at a rapid pace.   She had two things in front of her that she’d worked very hard on.   One was a poem each of the children had written out for their mother.  My daughter had braille hers and then had made a hand print flower arrangement on a large sheet behind it.  

She read the whole poem to me, including many words that were tricky for her due to length and composition.   Her braille teacher told me some of the words were fourth grade words.   After that she presented me with a paper purse.   Inside the purse (which was more of a booklet in the shape of a purse) there was a story about me.   It was things she thought about me and things I did and how much I meant to my daughter.   It was very sweet.

Next there was a performance by the class.   They stood in the front of the class and all danced and sang to. You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful” by One Direction.   There were dance moves that were cute and the children loved doing the song so much they did a second round at the end of the celebration.

We had tea and cookies next with the tea being sprite with rainbow sherbet in it.   And then Mrs. Wentz, their teacher, invited her own mother up to the rocking chair in the front of the class and told her, “I love you because” and gave some beautiful reasons she loved her mother.   Mrs. Wentz asked if any other children wanted to have their mom sit in the chair and tell them why they loved their mother.

The first child stood there for a second, looked dazed and then said, “My mom dropped her phone in the toilet.”   Everyone laughed and they sat down.   That pretty much set the tone for why children loved their mothers in the class.   One boy, who’s father had come in his mother’s stead as she was traveling and couldn’t make it, said, “my mom dropped my sister into the washing machine.”   That one went untopped”.

My daughter was almost last and she said what I was almost expecting by now, “my mother dropped her phone into the toilet.   And mommy, I love you because you take care of me.”   The second part I hadn’t expected.  All the parents in the room did a simultaneous, “aww”.  

The last person in the room to go was Mrs. Wentz’s daughter who is in high school.  She came up and read from her phone a very moving speech.   She said she had to write it out in advance so she wouldn’t cry.   Mrs. Wentz and she cried a bit anyways.

As we were wrapping up my daughter asked if I could take her home with me, and since it was forty-five minutes until dismissal I told her we could go home together and skip the “taxi” for the day.  Tonight she reread me the things she wrote about me.   We’re going to put them on the refrigerator for Mother’s Day.

The Big Boy Update:  As I was drying my hair today my son said, “you’re getting wrinkles.”  I explained it happened as you got older.   He then asked, “is it because you’re getting smaller and you have extra skin?”  I told him we could look up why adults get wrinkles and see if his theory was correct.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   After Mrs. Wentz’s daughter, Cassidy, gave her, “why I love you” speech to her mother today my daughter leaned over to me and said, “Cassidy sounded different than I thought she would.”   Which is interesting.   She knew Cassidy was visiting the classroom and she knew she’d arrived.   She knew she was serving the punch to us but she couldn’t see any of that.   The first time she experienced Cassidy herself was when she heard her talk.   I suppose it’s not unlike when we say someone didn’t look the way we expected when we meet them for the first time.