While people are always quick to point out the similarities of my three children, I find it more interesting to note their differences. Let's take the production of Valentine's Day cards, for instance.
The other night, I was elbow-deep in construction paper cut-outs of hearts. I cut while the kids pasted and decorated. All three seemed equally keen right out of the gate.
Neva set up on the piano bench and painstakingly applied stickers and stamps around the perimeters, making her choices based on each friend's personality and talents. It took several hours (including the next morning) to make the cards for just the girls in her class.
Milo began writing his name on his hearts, but tired quickly when he learned I had no "Transformer" stickers for the boys in his class. His pile of hearts is still sitting untouched on my desk, two days later. This afternoon, however, the purchase of pre-fab Spiderman valentine cards has renewed his enthusiasm. He's currently printing at Mach speed!
Willa, on the other hand, took all the construction paper out of the craft box, grabbed a glue stick and began gluing. And gluing and gluing and gluing! She was going through paper hearts faster than I could cut them. Each valentine she made -- and there were more than a dozen for all her friends at daycare -- was a full-sized sheet with hearts, scraps of paper and stickers. Each one entirely different from the next, they were more than cards: they were works of art!
If only the recipients understood the care (or not) that went into each card.
Happy sweeping!
Kathleen Gunther
Editor, ContestHound.com
