Orange Belt - Say "Yah!"

I'm in the running for Mother of the Year - again.  Jackson has been taking karate for almost a year.  In May, we got a brief note to all the karate parents in his take-home folder that if the kids wanted to test for their next belt, they could contact the instructor and set up a time to test.  I, being the wonderful mother I am, thought Jackson was way too young to test for a belt and hadn't yet even mastered his current form as he was having trouble remembering it.  I figured it was just a generic note sent to all the other kids who had been doing karate for much longer than Jackson.  Jackson didn't say anything about wanting to do it, so I didn't think anything more of it.

Fast forward to Open House night at school.  I talked with his karate instructor briefly just to see how Jackson was doing.  Her first comment was that Jackson was really disappointed that he didn't get to test for his orange belt, and now he felt really excluded since he was the only one who didn't have his orange belt. Ouch!  That knife in the stomach really hurt.  So, she told me the next test was a month away (now this weekend) at 9am.  I said "great - we'll be there" and put it on my calendar at 9am.  So on Friday, I called the instructor just to confirm it was still at 9am - she said she didn't know if Jackson was going to be there since she hadn't heard from us, but it was now at 10am.  His soccer game was at 11, so it would be tight, but we'd make it work.  Surely it wouldn't last more than 1 hr, right?

We got to the studio right on time and walked into a room filled with kids - all much older than Jackson.  And that's when I started getting nervous.  There were 2 judges dressed up in suits with scarves and medallions in front.  they called all the kids on the mat to "warm up".  Holy smokes - this is really serious.  Jackson looked so small next to all of the other kids.  But to his credit, he held his own and did well.

Next it was time to test everyone's forms.  I wasn't sure how this was going to work, since it appeared that everyone was at all different levels.  They had 4 kids test at a time, and each kid went through their form on their own at their own speed.  We didn't know whether Jackson was supposed to say each part of his form (like we'd been doing in practice), but it turns out, it's all supposed to be quiet.  So that (combined with everyone else doing something different and having to do his forms in front of all the other kids) threw him for a loop.  Thankfully, his instructor recognized that he was really nervous and came out to do his form with him.

After doing his forms, they also had to test for self defense.  I'm pretty sure they hadn't been working on any of this with Jackson, so his instructor came out to teach it to him.  Jackson had to test with another kid who was at least 3-4 yrs older than him, so I was more than a little nervous (especially since this was one of the better kids who tested!).  Jackson did really well.  His instructor, when teaching Jackson how to do some moves, was using sound effects to simulate the fast motion.  Jackson thought he was supposed to say those sound effects, so while he was practicing, you could hear him say "whackity wack - step back" which then morphed into "whackity whackity get backity".

After Jackson was finished, he had to wait for all of the other kids to finish - over 1 hour later!  Needless to say, we missed soccer.

All of the kids, judges and his instructor from testing day:

We didn't know what to expect afterwards - would he get his belt?  All of the kids lined up for a belt clip.  I also found out that Jackson was supposed to be saving all of his belt clips and putting them on his belt (belt clips are given out as rewards for a good job).  Oops.

I was starting to get a little annoyed - we had spent $70 and 1.5 hrs for a belt clip (that he hasn't even been saving)?? And then he came back and said he didn't even get a belt clip!  Thankfully, she came over a little later and gave him his orange belt - and a tiny tiger headband.  He seemed to like it - especially the head band.

Jackson's an Orange Belt! We're really proud of him for trying this - it was way more nerve racking than I thought it would be!

Jackson was so cute doing all of the forms.  Here's a video of highlights from the morning:

Tom and I were clueless as the testing was going on.  There were so many rituals and phrases that I had no idea what they were saying or what they were supposed to do.  Thankfully Jackson figured it out!

Jackson wore his headband all the way home.  He couldn't believe that he got it - especially since orange was his favorite color!  So next time you're in trouble, just say "Yah!" and Jackson will be nearby to protect you....

Let's Race

Since we've both been traveling quite a bit lately, I try to make each time that Jackson and I are home together extra fun.  Tom was going to be gone last weekend, and since Jackson has been talking a lot about having playdates (and sleepovers) with his friends, I decided we'd try to get his friends together on a Saturday morning.  We ended up going to Andy B's, a bowling alley that also had go-karts (and in late Sept - laser tag!).  Almost all of his friends made it, and they had a blast together bowling, eating bowling alley snacks and most importantly, racing!

They had little rookie race cars (that's really what they called them) for kids 5-9 yrs old that they could drive themselves.  Jackson was beyond excited (but trying very hard to play it cool).

Before long, it was race time!  I was a little afraid that they would be too fast for the kids, but I had no reason to worry:

Jackson did really well maneuvering around the other cars.  He really liked it when he'd get close to some of his friends:

When I asked how it went after he was back from his race, this is what I got:

By the time we got in the car to go home, he had already asked when we could do it again.  That's what I call a successful playdate!

Later that afternoon, after a quick lunch and a really quick nap, I surprised Jackson with a trip to the movies.  We saw The Odd Life of Timothy Green.  What a great movie!  I bawled like a baby.  Didn't help that Jackson kept looking up at me with a smile and kept saying "I love you mama".  Makes my heart melt.  Definitely going to have to watch that one again.

After the movies, it was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to the park.  Jackson obviously isn't my child as he kept asking me to take pictures of him.  :)

He's become so brave on the playground.  He used to be terrified of the rock wall, and now he can do it with ease.  He's also starting going down the fireman's pole - that still terrifies me!

In other news of the week, I became a redhead!  Wasn't quite what I was going for, but I'm learning to rock it.  It's pretty funny watching others reactions - some like it, and someone actually told me: I don't hate it, but it was gorgeous before!  They obviously hadn't seen the orange skunk stripes I was given by the first hairstylist!

The most exciting news this week was that we finally signed a contract with our builder!  The lot is officially ours! They indicated they'd start breaking ground in 2-3 weeks - pray for rain!  We got the first sketch of potential elevations for our house today - definitely going to make some changes, but I like where we are starting from (click to enlarge the pic):

Can't wait to get started!  Have a great weekend!

Go Pokes!

This weekend we had hoped to go to OKC to visit Tom's parents, but plans changed, so Jackson and I went to Stillwater to cheer on the Pokes while Tom finished up some writing.  This was the first football game, and you could feel the excitement around town.  Times have changed so much since we were in school!  It was really cool to see how many people were there on campus for game day, especially on such a hot and humid one!  We made it in time for The Walk, and Jackson and Reese grabbed some primo seats to watch the drumline and the football players.

I just love the sea of orange!  

Despite the heat and humidity, Jackson wanted to be held.  Pamma to the rescue!

We had lunch earlier that afternoon at El Vaquerro to try to stay away from the crowds.  Jackson and Reese saw the gumball machines full of candy and toys as we walked in, and Jackson kept asking if he could get a toy when we were done.  I initially told him no, but then I saw my mom's puppy dog face and I knew I would end up changing my mind!  "Ask her again" urged my mom. So really, I had no choice but to say yes!  It was so cute watching Jackson and Reese pick out which one they wanted.  Jackson chose a "superhero" ball (quite scary and disturbing, actually) and Reese picked out a pretty little ring.

In other news, we made our first purchase for our new house today - new appliances!  We have been doing so much research about which appliances to get, and found that almost every appliance online has a poor rating, so we just went with what we liked.  We were laughing, though, because one of the features that is on our new refrigerator is a "door alarm".  I joked to Tom that this could come in pretty handy - next time I decide to go on a diet, we'll just set the door alarm instead!  We got a really great deal on all of our appliances and managed to stay within $200 of our allowance (including tax), so we feel pretty good about that.  And that doesn't take into account any rebates.  So we're considering it a win!  Tom and I were really excited by our purchase - it's starting to feel real!

We drove by our lot later this afternoon.  My heart skipped a beat when I saw they had a "sold" sign in front of our lot.  We are praying that the "sold" sign means that it is truly ours.  We're meeting with our builder this week to hopefully finalize everything, sign the contract and put some money down, and then we can rest a little easier.

June 23, 2012:

September 2, 2012:

We've started a "Chore Chart" with Jackson.  He loves coloring in the squares each night on each of his chores that he has accomplished for the day - just like kindergarten, he says.  One of his "chores" is to read 1 book on his own each day.  He is starting to get really good at sounding out words, and he's read 2 books on his own this week.  I love that now he's even starting to ask to read to us instead of us read to him.  Favorite time of the day!  We had a good laugh tonight as he was reading his book about Nemo.  Instead of reading the word "helps", he sounded it out on his own and said "Oh, I know!  Little piss!"  I just about died laughing.  

Jackson has been asking a lot lately if he could play with his webshooter.  We kept putting it off since it had to be outside, and it's just been so hot lately.  He's been looking forward to Sunday - "webshooter day" as he calls it.  He even got it out this morning and put it on the middle of a table today just to make sure that we don't forget.  :)  He LOVED playing with it.  

Spiderman!

Hey, this stuff is sticky!  

I'm going to get you!

Hmmm, I wonder who was just here?  

Jackson was having a blast spraying his webs.  As he ran out of silly string, he looked down and said sadly "Hey, I think I just ran out of my powers!"  We promised more powers tomorrow - but with water instead of silly string!

Happy Labor Day!