This is the year I was going to go for store-bought Valentines. Every coloring-crafting-activity we’ve done with Julian in the last two years has ended in screaming and tears and most of the time I feel like it’s just too late in the pandemic for the level of aspirational crafting that making 50 classroom Valentines would require. Still, I started by browsing Pinterest, because homemade connotes some kind of superhuman parenting effort and I’m guilty of wanting to convey said effort. But after typing in “easy DIY valentine’s cards for kids” I immediately closed the browser window and moved onto other options.
I browsed Minted.com and Paper Source which both have abundant, cute, and somewhat customizable options. They are far fancier than the perforated Valentine’s from CVS of my youth. You can add a photo or your name or choose your background color, and get thematic sticker packs to use on the envelopes. The cards have assorted pun compliments—“I DIG you” accompanies the dinosaur bones, “You’re PUDDING a smile on my face” accompanies the smiling chocolate pudding cup, and “There’s so mushroom in my heart for you,” accompanies the mushroom one, which was my leading contender (obviously) for the kids. I suggested these and was firmly rejected. They had a plan.
Ada
Ada had a vision of creating custom heart-shaped cards for her whole class. She slowly made her way down her teacher-provided list of classmates, starting with Adalene, then Amelie, then Amalia, and considered the appropriate messages. “You are so, so funny,” she wrote to one friend, then added gem stickers, and colored extra hard, wearing down the tip of the red, pink, purple, and blue markers. I wondered if this friend would consider this a compliment.
On another she wrote, “You are my BFF,” and made a cut-out flap that revealed a heart with an arrow piercing through it. For another classmate, she paused, and asked me what she should write. I asked her what she liked about this girl and she shrugged. I asked her if there was anything unique about this friend, and she shrugged again. I suggested she write, “Happy Valentine’s Day,” and Ada scowled at me. “If I write that, she’ll think that I don’t like her,” she replied before settling on, “You’re pretty nice.”
Julian
For the last 18 months, Julian has only wanted to create one drawing, over and over again. In this drawing there are five toxic mushrooms: Fly Agaric, King Stropharia, Jack O’lantern, Death Cap, Destroying Angel, in a specific order on a square cut-out piece of paper. Every time he asks to draw this, I tell him to draw it himself. He claims he can’t, then melts into a puddle of tears.
But he is uncharacteristically excited about Valentine’s Day, and for once, he sits down at the table with his requisite colors—red, orange, yellow, brown, and black—and begins to draw the mushrooms. First he draws the brown stems, then the rounded caps of the Fly Agaric, the tiny white spots. For once, he also keeps going. He is concentrating very hard. He asks how to spell his friend’s name, and I write it on a piece of paper that he looks at while shaping out the letters. He adds apple stickers onto some of the cards and Spiderman stickers onto a few others. He asks me to draw a “medium-sized heart” that he colors in a deep red.
He sees no irony in giving kids he adores pictures of something so toxic it will kill you. It’s a sign of affection. It’s his greatest show of love.
Assorted Recommendations:
To eat: The Fishwife smoked salmon, because it’s delicious, and for the packaging, and because my deep winter craving is onigiri (rice balls) and this is the perfect, easy thing to put inside them.
To admire: The illustrations of Danny Miller, who made the packaging / branding for Fishwife.
To watch: The IG-based Olympics coverage of Leslie Jones (@lesdogggg).
To order: The forthcoming Lil Deb’s Oasis cookbook, Please Wait to be Tasted, which you can pre-order. Described as “tropical comfort food,” is best experienced in the brick n’ mortar in Hudson, but for those who can’t go IRL, it’s sweet, salty, rich, savory, indulgent, innovative, original food that I am excited to understand more intimately.
To Bake: This Maialino Olive Oil Cake, made with a bunch of adjustments: use 1 cup sugar (instead of 1 and 3/4), use 1/2 EVOO and 1/2 coconut oil, sub in 1/2 cup cornmeal or almond flour for 1/2 cup of the AP.
To Listen: This podcast from Fatherly + iHeartRadio, Finding Raffi, a deep dive into the life, philosophy, and career. I love the approach of host, Chris Garcia, who really gets Raffi to open up.
To ogle at : The photography of Luisa Dorr, whose images of indigenous teen girls skateboarding in Cochabamba, Bolivia made the rounds in Nat Geo last week. I also love this series “The Flying Cholitas” of Bolivian women wrestlers.
To listen (kids): This playlist of all 30 chapters (stories) of Louis Sachar’s Sideways Stories from Wayside School, which my kids adore.
That’s all for this week. Stay warm, enjoy the Olympics, and let me know what you’ve been loving lately.