That's What Love Is All About

Assignment:  Buy valentines for Rylan's class party, help her address and sign 29 valentines--26 students, 2 teachers, one teacher's aide.

First Step:  Pick out valentines at CVS Pharmacy.  Rylan decides we should purchase one kind for boys and one kind for girls, because "boys don't like Princesses and stuff like that."  Boys get cool jungle animals in 3-D alternating poses and punny captions like "I'm not lion, I want to be your Valentine," and "I'm ape over you!"  Girls get puppies and kittens in precious photos with roses and tea sets, and sugary captions like "Sweet-Tea, will you be my Valentine?" and "You're the purr-fect Valentine for me!" along with a bonus kitty pencil.

Second Step:  Address all those valentines using the alphabetical list of students that Mrs. Lent sent home.  Rylan can read all the names, and knows if they are girls or boys, but still manages to mess up a few--giving a boy one of the girls' valentines or vice-versa.  She chuckles at herself when she makes those mistakes.  When we're all done, she still has a half pack of the girls' style and about a third pack of the boys' style left.

Third Step:  What to do with the leftovers?  Well, Grandma Val wants one for sure, and how about Kinley, Mommy, Auntie Carrie, Daddy?  First leftover goes to Cooper Dog, the family pet. He gets the two puppies, with the caption "No bones about it, you're my best friend, Valentine!"  All the girls in the family are awarded the appropriate kittified, cutified cards. 

Last Step (and punch line):  I ask her, "What about your Daddy Kyle?  You have lots of the boys' valentines left.  What animal do you think he'd like?"  Deep in thought, Rylan finally responds, "I think I'm going to give him one of the girls' kinds, because he really likes girlie things." 

Epilogue and Moral:  I share this funny story with Kyle when he gets home from work.  "Oh no," he says, "don't let that comment get around!"  It's ok, Kyle, I'm only blogging it on the internet.  Daddies of little girls liking girlie things is really what love is all about.  They play prince to their princess, they manage to get the heads back on Barbies, they participate in dance parties, they root on their budding gymnasts, they learn to brush tangled hair into neat ponytails, and they do it in such a spirit that their little girls believe Daddy really likes these girlie things.  Treasure that valentine, Kyle; it truly says how much your little girls treasure you.