Generosity at its Modest-est

My youngest stepson Peez has an odd fascination with how much things cost. I don't usually worry about it too much, though, since he is also one of the most generous kids I know.

Peez informed me yesterday that it was his teacher's birthday. He wanted to buy her flowers to bring her the next day. I had to return some movies anyway so we stopped off at a little pharmacy I'd never been to right next door.

Inside were all kinds of little chotchkes that Peez wanted to get for her. I reminded him that he would be using his allowance money, and he said it was okay, since he had over $40 in his account. He ended up narrowing things down to a heart-shaped box with a dog picture on the front, a small glass statuette of two dolphins frolicking in waves, a brightly-colored coffee cup with a poem for a teacher on it, and a plastic-wrapped red rose. He also chose a birthday card with two sleeping puppies on the front.

Being a former teacher and having been subjected to less-than-ideal presents, (I once got an obviously adult-wrapped box with very used eyeshadow inside) I would normally try and steer him more in the direction of something his teacher might actually use. But Peez was soooooo excited to pick something out on his own and use his own money that I just let him go.

One thing I should have done, though, is ask him what he was going to say on his card before he wrote on it.

In permanent ink.

He was putting the card in the envelope when I asked him what he wrote. He said it was personal. I told him I respected that and I was about to drop the subject completely. Then he said it was okay, he would read it out loud to me. Here's what it said:

Dear Miss D- [She actually happens to be married. And pregnant.]

Happy Birthday. I hop you like thes gifts. I bougt them myself with my own mony. It cost 28 dollers. But that dosent really mater. From P-

Hey. At least his heart's in the right place.

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