1 Mother 2 Another

Today our school is celebrating all the
kids’ 100th day of school. Kindergarten in particular has a
rip-roaring good time with lots of extra activities, like making a
necklace of 100 Fruit Loops or counting out 100 pieces of snack;
but the grand finale of the nearly week-long festivities is
today’s big excitement: the 100 Days Shirt.


Each kindergartener is supposed to make a shirt with 100 –
SOMETHING – on it. 100 stamps, or buttons, or stickers, or
pom-poms, whatever. And when I say a kindergartener is supposed to
make it, I mean his MOM is supposed to make it.

I’d been warned about the 100 days
thing when Maddie started kindergarten, so we had time to
brainstorm what she’d like to do. I gently steered her away
from anything that involved my sewing anything on, or any project
that sounded beyond my crafting skills. Maddie finally landed on
collecting 100 friends – getting 100 different people to sign
her shirt.


We spent almost a month having friends, family, co-workers, and
fellow churchgoers sign Maddie’s shirt – it became a
ubiquitous part of any outing. I’d shamelessly pass the
clipboarded shirt down the row at church, or ask each of my
students to sign it before I’d let them perform. It all
worked out in the end, and Maddie still has her shirt and gazes
fondly on it from time to time.


So when Cora and I sat down to brainstorm, I knew what sort of
things might be coming. I was ready for 100 paint dots, or 100 pink
press-on jewels, or something of that ilk.


I forgot Cora’s love of cheetahs.


Yes, she decided to go for one HUNDRED cheetah spots on a shirt. So
you know what I did?


Found a cheetah-print ink stamp. Nineteen spots per stamp, baby. We
stamped her shirt five times, added five extra dots, and Cheetah
Girl is ready to go.


Cora’s tremendously happy with her shirt, which she worked
hard to create.


And I’m happy there’s no 100 Days shirt in first
grade.