S3's Reward

At the boys school, they have this special award called Student of the Month. Every month, the teacher chooses one of their students to congratulate. Letters are sent home to the parents asking it to remain a secret that your child has been chosen as Student of the Month. Then, the parents arrive to the school as the classes are brought in so that when the child's name is called they can have their picture taken when they are given a t shirt congratulating them.

It's a huge deal.

The problem is that Husband likes to tease the boys about this. They are good in school, we hear how great they are, but you can only get Student of the Month once the whole school year. S1 has only gotten it once the whole time he has been in school. Once. The shirt does not even begin to fit him anymore. S2 has gotten it every year he has been in school. And today was the very first time S3 got a Student of the Month. The boys wait with baited breath when Student of the Month assembly comes up. And the deal is, when they see us in school, they all get excited. This could be THEIR day, it never occurs to them that it could be their brother. And so we cheer one on and devastate the other two. Yet, even in that, they quickly get over the disappointment in joy for their brother.

I love our boys.

On this particular top special secret day, we overslept.

By a lot.

We rushed out of the house with coffee, headed out all together with four boys, Jr, Husband and me. When we arrived at school in the very nick of time, we realized then that S3 had forgotten his glasses, his back pack, and the lunch he brought was the same one from the day before, not a new anything in that. Gross.

Upon realizing he had forgotten literally everything but himself and his coat, he began to cry. When S3 cries it's just pitiful. He has this creaky voice that always sounds like he is getting over a cold. And when he cries, well, it's this weird whine that just breaks everyone's heart. So here he is, about to have the best school day ever, standing in the middle of his classroom, having arrived late to realize he is not prepared for school and unable to see a thing in his class because he forgot his glasses to boot.

Pitiful.

His teacher, our dear K.E., pulls me aside to ask “what issues do I need to know about with S3?”
You know, that's just not the way to begin the celebration of the day.

Husband was certain he had grabbed these things for S3 before we left, but after searching the suburban we realized he hadn't so we quickly drove home, searched the very messy house because we hadn't been home in two full days to find the back pack under Jr's swing. Then we raced back to school to get there in time for the surprise.

We weren't late. Amazing.

It's so fun to watch all the kids file in. They instantly search the crowd to see if their parents are in the crowd. If they are, well, they can't stop beaming.

S2 was in one of the first groups to come in. His whole entire face lit up and he waved shyly to us. I couldn't stand have him be so disappointed so I told Hubby to call him over and let him know that S3 had gotten student of the month and not him. He took it in stride.

S3 was one of the last bunches of kids to come in. He didn't see us (being nearly blind without his glasses), we had to call him over, and then I told him the reason we were there was so that we could give him his glasses. I put his glasses on his face and then told him the teacher had told us that we could find him there. He sat with his class, looking a bit lost and wondering why he was there at all.

When his teacher stood up to introduce her student of the month, she began to describe a student who always smiles and is helpful and kind to everyone...and the whole kindergarten class pointed at S3. They just knew it was him. She called his name and he went up to collect his special t-shirt, beaming. I don't think a boy could smile much bigger than that! It warmed our hearts, it literally brought tears to my eyes. Here is my little guy, a big kindergartner, who is so sweet the whole class knew he should get the special reward.

It was a moment I will remember for a long time, worth everything that had gone wrong that day!