Ask anyone who knows my child, and they’ll tell you she’s a moody one. Last week, despite her moodiness, she surprised me.

That’s typically how she operates – in surprises, whether sweet or dramatic or somewhere in between.

I picked her from a trip with my parents to South Florida to meet my grandfather, and she was upset that they had forgotten a bag of Mother’s Day cards at Walmart. One of those cards was one she had picked out herself to give to me on Mother’s Day.

“Lou, Lou we HAVE to go back to Walmart and get those cards,” she said. “It was the perfect one for Mama.”

My mom reassured her that the card could be replaced.

I guess the larger-than-life 5-year-old felt the need to make it up to me all week long.

Monday rolled around and I was summonsed to the pressroom, where she and her buddy, “Miss Barbara,” serenaded me with their version of “Happy Mother’s Day” and a handmade card.

On Tuesday, she made me a huge poster full of drawings because she’s also an artsy one.

Each night last week I received something, thoughtful and made just from her heart.

Saturday afternoon, I picked her up from my ex-in-laws, and she had picked me out a vase – in my favorite color – and a pretty awesome mug.

Now, I really didn’t even know she knew blue was my favorite color – again another surprise from her.

Sunday morning she brought home a rose for me from church, because “roses are really, really, really pretty, Mom, and you should have the best.”

Awh!

The best gift of all was when we retrieved her backpack from her grandparents and inside was days of hard work, which included handprints with a poem that can make even the toughest moms cry; a painting – again in my favorite color with the message, “You are my sunshine;” and various other projects she’d worked on throughout the month.

My child loves to sing, so of course, she sang me “You are my Sunshine.”

That got me. I cried. I cried a lot.

There are many days when I feel like I’ve failed her, but she always seems to know when to say what I need her to say, even on days when her strong-will challenges me.