Facebook Post from April 17, 2013
) I usually deliver it to the school with snack treats, but ( 
UGH!!!) I forgot! I was trying to be tough when Andreu’s eyes welled up with tears, but when he left out of the room I found 
my eyes had welled up, too. I had no idea those cards I sent to school were so important to them… He came back in the room and told me he FORGAVE me for forgetting his birthday card 
… Still, I had to come up with something and I came up with THIS! I carefully unsealed the boxes of treats placed an affirmation about Andreu on each treat, and resealed the boxes… I AM HOPING HE IS SURPRISED and pleasantly so… We’ll see…Follow-up Response: Thank you for the encouragement! 🙂 I really needed the support. (And I could tell some you had been “there” before as well and you felt my pain… Thanks for the empathy.)
I saw Andreu as he was passing out extra treats to teachers in the hallway at school. He looked at me rather bashfully, but the his classmate, Alex, ran up to me and said, “Mrs. Mason we LOVED the notes on Andreu’s treats. They were so cool… I got the one that said, ‘Andreu is brilliant!'” She went on to talk about how different ones got this one or that one that said, “Andreu is _____!” I must admit, I was happy at the thought of Andreu hearing all those affirmations about himself. 🙂
I asked him if he liked them and he said, “Yes…” and I asked him if he was surprised and he said, “Yes…” 
Sigh… When I was leaving the school building, I passed by his classroom. (I saw one of the treats on the corner desk by the door. 🙂 ) His classmates pointed toward the door… He looked… I waved… He ran out into the hallway (out of view of his classmates) and gave me a big hug and said, “Thanks, Mom.” Anita (my older sister), thank you for my award because all I could think was that all of my years of sacrifice and trying to be a great Mom were about to be foiled by forgetting a silly musical card. Nita Boo, you are right… My name sake and I are SO MUCH ALIKE! (It didn’t help that we had just celebrated his oldest brothers’ birthday BIG three days ago.
Andreu needed some time to get his emotions together and take it all in. He will probably be able to say more about how he liked them later, if he chooses to… But I think it was a good save… 🙂
“Update: Andreu indulged his Mom and told me more about how he felt about his birthday treats… He said, “I just kept saying, ‘How did she do that? How did she do that? … Like 5 times, Mom… How did you do that and the box wasn’t even open?” I asked, “So are you okay not getting a card?” He responded, “Oh yeah, it was waaaaaay better.” I asked, “Oh really? Why?” He responded, “Because it was all about ‘Andreu is…'” The icing on the cake was when my youngest, Omari, came in looking pouty and said, “Mom, you never did anything like that for me…” HA!!! So I retain my “Best Mom Ever” crown after all!”
Dr. Doula Says... 