Kindess Day

The alphabet themed count-down continues at Julia's school, with today being L(etter) Day, in which kids got to do an art project decorating the first letter of their name.  Yesterday, however, was K(indness) Day, and it was quite a delight to see the Kindness Day Compliments that came home with Julia today:

As Julia explained it to me, each child was given five compliments; four by classmates, and the last compliment was self-given.  It turns out that the compliment Julia gave to herself was "Silly."

ME: So, Julia, the compliment you decided to give yourself is SILLY?!?

JULIA: Yeah.  (injured) What??

ME: Well, you are definitely silly, that's for sure.  I was just surprised of all the things to pick about yourself, that's what you said.

JULIA: Well, I *was* gonna say "good back-stroker," but someone else already said "good swimmer" so I felt like that was kind of, like, the SAME THING.

ME: Right, and a lot of the other compliments were probably things you would have thought of, like playing the piano.  I also know that it's hard to give yourself a compliment in front of other people, because it can feel like you're bragging.

JULIA: Right!  So, like, saying "I'm silly" doesn't feel like that, because I could be like, "Sydni, I'm SILLY!  You're silly too!" and it's not, like, saying that, like...

ME: Like saying you're so great at something and someone else is not?

JULIA: Right!

So.  Yet another thing Julia has inherited from her parents: the intense disability to speak highly of oneself (despite the secret inner laudatory thoughts we think about ourselves...)

At any rate, as we sat around the dinner table, the girls and I decided to do Kindness Day compliments for each other.  We started with Madeleine.

JULIA: Okay, I'll go first!  Uh...I love her PLOP CHEEKS!

ME: She's a REALLY amazing artist.

JULIA: She's a really great SINGER and DANCER!

ME: She's REALLY sweet.

JULIA: She's so pretty and cute!

Then we moved on to me.  Hang on to your seats, because you are going to be BLOWN AWAY by the magnitude of their compliments about me:

JULIA: She likes to play the flute and sing.

MADELEINE: She says, "Just IGNORE her, Julia!"

JULIA: She reads us a bedtime story.

MADELEINE: Uh...she loves Julia.

JULIA: She teaches us how to sing "Christos anesti"

(This then prompted Madeleine to launch into a table-time performance of "Christos anesti," after which we were able to move on to Daddy's compliments.)

ME: Okay, so, Madeleine, what's great about Daddy?

MADELEINE: Uh...he lays on the COUCH.

JULIA: He's SUCH a comfy snuggler!

MADELEINE: He eats sausage.

JULIA: He loves BEER!

MADELEINE: He likes to eat KIDS!

Since Daddy is not here, he wasn't able to react to his compliments, but I'm sure he is going to be touched to the depths of his heart when he reads this.

Madeleine then enhanced the wonderful things she'd said about Daddy by touching on one of his most profound insecurities.

MADELEINE: And...he thinks his TUMMY is TOO FAT.

ME: I know he thinks that.  It makes me feel sad for him-

JULIA: (with deep empathy) I know!  Me too!  

ME: I wish he wasn't so down on himself, because I think he's SO GREAT!

JULIA: I know!  Mama?  You know what else?  He has WHISKERS.  Because...he just wouldn't be DADDY without his whiskers!  If he didn't have whiskers, he would look kind of like YOU!  Or...you would look like him.  Or should I say the other way around?

At any rate, even though Madeleine was not outwardly aware of Kindness Day, she did, in fact, endeavor to show her sister a great kindness by beginning to create a "Poem Book" for Julia.  Here's what she's got so far:

While I had fully expected this to be the Giving Tree, it turns out Madeleine was drawing characters from Julia's current favorite books (The Chornicles of Prydain, as mentioned yesterday).  The tree serves merely as a setting for the characters, who appear as tiny blue figures in the top right of the page.  According to Madeleine, this is a pictures of herself, saving Princess Eilonwy.  Except that she made Eilonwy a boy, prompting Julia to completely freak out and insistently command Madeleine to make her a girl because she IS A GIRL.  Nope.  Madeleine wouldn't budge.  So a very masculine version of Eilonwy is show in this picture, laying horizontally in Madeleine's arms, as well as in the arms of the two headless figurines whose dresses weren't perfect enough for Madeleine to continue drawing the rest of their features.

The second page of the poem book was recently completed this evening:

MADELEINE: Julia!  It's you and ME at ARTESANI PARK!

The girl on the right, as well as the disembodied yellow head on the left are discarded attempts at drawing Madeleine and Julia.  Madeleine simply could not cope with her disastrous attempt at drawing a purple bathing suit on the right-hand girl, and the yellow head was "NOT a perfect HEAD!" so... in typical Madeleine fashion, there was no reason to even continue if anything was less than impeccable.

Since every Madeleine drawing is so time-consuming, thanks to her perfectionism, the poem book remains at two pages for now.  I can't wait to see what she adds to it in the coming days, and how many unforgivable failures she draws before producing something acceptable.