I picked up the kids from school yesterday at the usual time, in the usual place, but something wasn't so usual about Miss Payton Ally. From the moment she entered the car, I noticed she was acting exceptionally giddy. She kept looking at me and smiling. "What?!" I would ask, thinking she was probably embarrassed about something I was wearing, saying, doing, etc. She'd just shake her head, grinning wide.
After all the neighbor kids were dropped at their doors, we made our way down the street to our house. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, Payton let loose.
"So, mom, listen to this.....at lunch Thompson came up to me and told me to meet him in front of Mrs. ? class after school because he had something for me. I couldn't stop thinking about it all day long. I just wondered and wondered what he would have for me. Finally after school I went to the classroom and he was waiting."
At this point, she is ready to explode. This is something good, something grand, I can feel it and the anticipation is killing me.
She reaches into her backpack and pulls out a medium sized, heart shaped, box of chocolates, wrapped beautifully with:
To :Payton
From: Dallas
written in black marker on the front of the box.
"So, he gives me this!" She holds it out for me to see. She is BEAMING! Payton has crushed on Dallas since Kindergarten. "Thompson gave it to me because Dallas was just too shy," she explains. I could have cried. I know, I know, ridiculous, but her excitement was so contagious, and it made me happy that she was elated, surprised and excited all at the same time. I mean this mama knows that in the world of a third grade girl, this is TOP DRAWER! And, I don't know that there's anything that makes parents feel better than seeing our kids genuinely happy, right?!
I relished in that moment, you know, Pay telling me about her Valentine. It reminded me of a poignant part in the book, The Middle Place. You see the main character had a rough 9th grade year. She didn't have any friends and all the girls in school were mean to her. When she asked her mom years and years later what her mom's worst year of school was, her mom answered, "9th grade." "Why 9th grade mom?" she questioned. "Not my ninth grade, your ninth grade." She realized that her troubled 9th grade year was just as hard on her mom as it was on her.
As I read that part in the book my heart felt heavy. This most certainly is the truth. When our kids are suffering, we suffer, and Pay has had her fair share of "not so good times" at school. I remember in the second grade when she wouldn't finish her work so she could stay in at recess and avoid the playground. There were times when her teacher would make her go out for recess to get some fresh air. I would drive by the school periodically and and see her sitting cross legged, leaning up against the building, alone, reading a book. Wow, did that make my heart ACHE!
But, the beauty of it is... when our kids are happy, we get to experience that with them too. Those moments of joy are the ones we hang on to. This year, for Payton, has been different, better, in a lot of ways. For the first time, she has made friends with a few girls in her class, who call her on the phone and come over to play. Payton seems happier and more at ease at school. So far, third grade has been a good year. And most certainly, one of my favorite memories of Pay's third grade year, will always be, the day she came home GLEAMING, sharing the story of her FIRST VALENTINE!
