Thank You Notes

Thank You notes take forever. Part of this is my fault, since I insist on taking a photo of A. holding a hand-painted sign that says "Thank You" and pasting it to the front of blank cards. Then I have A. dictate a message to each gift-giver, type it up, print it out and paste it to the inside. Then he has to sign each one. This way, he can say as much as he wants to say, which is often a great deal, and doesn't get frustrated trying to write it all out.

He's getting quite good at the format - "Thank you for ____. I like it because __________." etc. Sometimes it's rather incoherent but very 6-year-old:

Thank you for the shirt and hip-hop jeans. I think they will look good on me. Talking about hip-hop sounds like a bunny hopping and talking about bunnies hopping is making me think about Easter because you know the Easter Bunny goes at Easter and that kind of reminds me of a lot of things. Besides, let’s change the subject. Thank you for coming to my party. Now that’s all I have to say about that subject.

Usually I let him say whatever he wants to say, like the above, because WHATEVER, he's 6 and this way it really looks like he came up with the words himself.

Sometimes I do have to operate my veto rights, like the one to the people who accidentally bought a present more appropriate for Ben:

Thank you for the Magnalogs. But it wasn’t Ben’s birthday, it was my birthday. So next year don’t forget that it is my birthday and not Ben’s.

"Let's try that again, " I say. Next version:

Thank you for the Magnalogs. They look like fun. I tried to make a house on the ground so it would look like it would be an ant’s home. If I put it on the kitchen floor without breaking it, it could really be an ant’s home because we always have ants going around on our kitchen floor. Thank you for coming to my party.

"OK, who's next?" I ask. I'll just write this one myself.