Time flies when you are having fun.  Have truer words been spoken?   The second grade didn’t seem like a big jump.  I guess the rigors of first grade toughened us up for that.

As seems to be an end-of-year custom, there was an “awards day”.  I always think, hmmmm, maybe we could skip this one, and then I stop deluding myself.  Bryan and I both went to the Kindergarten awards day (luckily it landed on a “non-clinic” day), and we both tried not to cry tears of joy.  Last year, Bryan wasn’t able to attend, and I had just started easing back into lab work.  Of course, I made time to go – even though I almost fell asleep in the middle of the program, because I was exhausted.  This year, we lucked up, and Bryan was able to attend the big day!  Yeah!

Since Bryan is the “cool parent”, it was a big deal that he was able to attend, and there was a slightly better chance to get bigger smiles in the pictures.

Now, before I skip to the “OMG – my daughter is the prettiest, smartest, most awesome kid on the planet”, let me tell you how I actually feel about awards.  First off, it is GREAT to receive an award.  What is more affirming than being told that you have earned top honors at whatever?  BUT – in the real world, you don’t always win or even get an acknowledgement. If you are the lucky person that gets kuddos for a job well done on most days, you are the minority.  I (and Bryan to a lesser extent) spend a significant amount of time talking with Rachel about hard work and persistence. It’s hard to explain to kids – you don’t always get a certificate, a ribbon, a trophy.  In real life, even when you work the hardest, you might not be the best.  Gasp – you might be average!  Even worse – you may be the best and not be chosen as the winner!  (Get out of town….).  Constant acknowledgement doesn’t equal happiness.  “what????” is the typical reply to that.

Anyway, back to 2nd grade triumphs …..  Since I am a curious person (and a little competitive), I double checked Rachel’s end of year scores online to see if she made the cut for any subject awards before the big day.  Science was a shoe-in (it’s 2nd grade and science is still fun – everybody gets that one).  Math and Social Studies – ugh oh, final average 92.  Reading – crap, final average 91!  Holy stinking cow!!!!  You see, 93 is the minimum score for a subject superlative recognition on your certificate…  Again – Holy stinking cow (I actually want to cuss really bad, but I restrain myself).

I wasn’t nearly that annoyed with Rachel, just a little at myself.  You see, we let Rachel do lots of activities and there are times when we could do more (more math drills, more quizzes, etc..).  Surely if I had given a little more push, she could have earned those 3 extra merits! Crap (but imagine I am saying the “bad word” alternative).  I kind of dropped the ball.  At this point in my self-imposed agony, I remembered that my daughter (well both of them) are not me – they can’t or should not try to be me, and I shouldn’t try to make them into a mini-me.  Also, their individual achievements are not mine nor are their short-comings.

Bryan was disappointed – “what, she didn’t get the math award”.  I thought that he was going to cry.  Really, he took it pretty hard.  I told him that it might be better  to not achieve so much so soon.  Come on, really, so what if she had gotten a 93 instead of a 92?  Does that really make her better at math?  NO!  Does that mean that maybe she could be motivated to achieve more next year?  Possible – who’s to say?

As the kids filed into the room, I thought about how much Rachel had grown up this year.  There were so many changes –

The shoes that inspired the outfit.

a new little sister, moving to a new (and MUCH tougher) gym, adding on violin lessons – and yet, there she was standing and then sitting like a sweet and lovely little girl.  We had a major discussion about what to wear for awards day, and she picked something appropriate and a little spunky.  She wanted to build an outfit around a pair of blue clogs that were getting too small. Just as the awards were starting, Bryan got an “emergency page” – ugh.  He missed her standing in recognition of the science award, but he was there for the others.  It was so funny, he kept trying to get her to smile so we could get good pictures!  Another dad sitting next to me was giving his kid a thumbs up and a fist pump every time his kid got a recognition (and there were a lot of them….), so I thought Bryan was relatively tame.

In case you were wondering – here are my little superstar’s end of year awards!

* Science

* Conduct (yes really)

* A/B Honor Roll (your kid has to make the honor roll every grading period to receive this one! I like this.  It demonstrates persistence)

* Texas Reader (this was an in-class thing that all of the kids did.  I think they had to read 20 books and write a report about them)

my future scientist 🙂

We celebrated the last day of school and the start of summer by a trip to CiCi’s Pizza.

CiCi’s Pizza is where it’s at if you want to celebrate

Cheers, to my little Superstar!