Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Orange Belt


Island Boy graduated to his first real belt in Martial Arts class today. (Don't ask me how many belts they are - I have no idea!)

He's been taking classes since October when a new studio and a new instructor moved into our neighborhood. Perhaps eager to grow their fledgling business, the studio gamely agreed to accept students that were not-quite-three. There are days - and I'm only guessing here - when those instructors must ask themselves whether or not that was absolutely positively really really necessary.

It's true that Island Boy, like most now-barely-three-year-olds, can have a short attention span. Fortunately he is the youngest in the class and it is also true that he somehow manages to soak up some very impressive moves and snap to attention just when you fear that all hope is lost.

As the parents gathered for this class's first ever Belt Graduation Test and Ceremony, the children must have felt the excitement in the air. Although the parents routinely watch from the sidelines during class, on this day there was an extra current of energy running through the building and the children knew it. They reacted as expected - some wore their game faces and others pulled out nervous behaviors we had not seen before this day, but they all performed and, in the end, they all graduated.

Although at this age these children are still learning what it means to be "proud", every one of them was as proud as I've ever seen anyone as the rank of "Junior Orange Belt" was bestowed upon each of them.

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Happy Birthday, Island Boy!

We celebrated Island Boy's birthday with the biggest cake you've ever seen. We didn't really intend for it to be that big - we asked the folks at the cake place how many the cake would serve when we ordered it and their estimate sounded right on target.

It started out when we asked Island Boy what he wanted on his cake.
"Sprinkles!", he responded.
We breathed a sigh of relief. Why? Because, selfishly, it meant that I could order a cake from a place that makes fantastic cakes, but not so much with the children's designs on them. And, naturally we asked about the number of people our cake would serve.

It turns out their estimate was WAY off. Perhaps it would have been on target had the cake been a single layer. Perhaps it wouldn't have been far off had it been a double layer or perhaps it wouldn't have been far off if everyone at the party ate as much cake as I like to eat.

However, THIS cake turned out to be a TRIPLE layer, ginormous (and very delicious) masterpiece. Did we have leftovers? Yes, yes we did. Even after giving some to just about anyone that walked by we had leftovers upon leftovers - so much so that we found ourselves distributing more around the neighborhood that evening. Too much cake? Not such a bad problem to have, really.

The bottom line is that the celebration was wonderful. Nearly all of Island Boy's classmates joined us for a party that was fun and even educational. All in all it was a very, very special day.

We love you, son. Happy Birthday!!!