Awarded

About a month ago Chicky came home from school, and as soon as she saw me, tears came to her eyes.
"You missed my Fairness award today. And Mrs W---- wouldn't let me call you to see where you were."
She cried, I cried, the boy cried...because we were.
I felt like the worst mother of all time for forgetting about her awards assembly.
At their school they have pillars of character. 5 of them. Chicky got the Fairness Character Award. 2 kids from each class get the award. And along with the certificate, they get to put their hand print on the wall.
And I missed it!
In my defense I was doing service for my dad.
But still, I missed it.And I was upset over this for 2 or 3 days.

So, on Monday, Chicky comes home with a paper that says (we thought) that she was getting the "Caring" award. SO EXCITED! She couldn't believe she was getting ANOTHER character award!

"Mom, can you come?" "Mom, please don't miss it this time."

I put it in my calendar on my phone RIGHT THEN. I was not going to forget. And she reminded me every day. And the boy did too. "mom are you going to come. It's our turn to sing this time. We get to sing the caring song."  And he sang it for the husband and me before bed last night.

Even up to this morning- "Mom, remember the assembly." "Yes, Chicky, I will see you in half an hour. I WILL be there!" the boy- "mom I'm singing. Remember?" "Yes, the boy, I will be there." 

And they headed out the door with smiles on their faces.

And a half hour later I was running down the hall at the school. Because I got there right on time.

The kindergarten had just started singing. And I got it on video. And the boy was thrilled to see me there. And he was SUPER cute singing the caring song.

And then they called up the kids for the Caring Award. But Chicky didn't get called. Hmmmmm.

But I was watching her, and she didn't seem upset. Hmmmmm.

Then they started to talk about the Honor Roll.

And it dawned on  me (from looking at her report card), THAT was the award she was getting.

And the Caring bit? It is the "Caring" Awards Assembly- because that was the name. Because that was the trait they were focusing on this month.

So as the classes were being dismissed, I told Chicky that I would not be back at noon for the hand print on the wall part. 

"But why mom!!!!?" 

"Because, honey, you aren't going to be putting you hand on the wall this time."

"Yes I am! I got the caring award."

"No, you got the Honor Roll, not the caring award."

That's when she started getting upset. Tears in her eyes. And I had to explain what had happened and how we had all misunderstood the paper she had brought home. I told her it wasn't important that she didn't get that award. We already KNOW she's a caring person. But what I wanted her to understand was that the Honor Roll is awesome because it means she is doing GREAT in school, and working really hard, AND (the thing that really got her attention, and made that pretty smile beam across her face) that she is SO smart!