Showing Love

M2 has been hung up lately with the idea that nobody in her school class loves her. It's not true. I've been there and watched her classmates interact with her, and her teachers assure me that it's the same way when I'm not there. The girl is loved. But she doesn't believe it. So the other day, in a desperate attempt to get her to see through the fog in her brain, I told her that people show love in different ways. I tried to cover all the different love languages. I told her that love can be playing with her, which is what she wants and thinks she isn't getting, but love can also be hiding in things like helping someone out, sitting next to a person, and yes, even pestering!

I don't know how much of it she bought, but I'd like to think a little of it sank in. We're on Spring Break for the next two weeks, so we'll see how excited (or not) she is to see her friends again when the time comes.

I also told her that love can be making things for people, which is something she enjoys doing. M1 enjoys this, too. One of his assignments recently turned into a little more, and our family has reaped the benefits.

Grandma, you haven't seen this.

The assignment was to create a greeting card for someone. The idea was to write a small poem, illustrate it, and send it to someone. Since we haven't delivered the original card yet, I can show it to you:


Keep that poem in mind. It's going to come into play again very shortly.

Two days after he wrote this card, he had a rough night. He couldn't fall asleep. I heard him puttering around in his room, but he wasn't coming out, so I let him be. When I was getting dressed in my bedroom the following morning, I heard a rustle at the door. I opened it and looked down to find...

That's us scaring Daddy. It's somewhat of a tradition to try to scare the pants off of Oz when he "rests his eyes."

That afternoon Oz got a card that had "Together we make a big moo" in the middle with a picture of them saying MOO together. I can't find it for a photo, but by this time, we were all giggling from the random cards. (M2 didn't get left out. She has a Valentine's Day mailbox she brought home from school, and M1 delivers little notes to her all the time. The most recent one said, "I love you M2. XOXOXOXO")

So clearly, this poem was getting some wear.

Oz took it and ran with it. He created cards for each kid that afternoon. The top one is M1's, and the bottom is M2's. For the record, M2 thought his handwriting was horrible ("Your 'n' is an 'm', Daddy!") but thought his drawing was simply mind-blowing ("I didn't know you could make that!"). The front of each card says, "I love my [child's name]. He/she loves me, too."


Showing love. It's got a funny way of showing itself in ways you'd never expect. If I can teach M2 this, we'll be good to go.