Tuesday, November 21, 2006
All 3 Kids Belt Tested Last Week and I Didn't Vomit
Not even once. A very dear friend of mine, someone who has been-there-done-that, actually sent me an email congratulating me for that very thing. The not vomiting thing. (It's harder than you think.) She knows how nervous I get when only one of my kids is testing, so to have 3 at once was sort of overkill, really.
Not that I don't find the whole process amazing and wonderful, because I do. And I believe my kids can do anything, short of getting both dirty socks into the hamper at once. Still, sitting there and watching them stick hands and feet through solid boards - I'm pretty attached to those hands and feet, and went to quite a lot of trouble to create them and keep them all in one piece for this long, after all - can be a little nerve-wracking.
Stormy, who in everyday life is a very competent child whose innate toughness I would never question, always suddenly appears to me to be a delicate flower when she's standing all alone up there. And in the next second she's reducing thick wooden boards to toothpicks and I am reminded that she is fierce and strong. It's humbling, too, when some little creature I thought I knew pretty well suddenly lets loose with a back kick that would bring a tear to Jet Li's eye.
Khy has a little more trouble with the board breaking. I think he suffers from a hereditary condition straight from me - it's called Logic. Down deep inside of us both, we know that body parts were not made for chopping wood. Still, his perseverance is one of the most awe-inspiring things I've ever seen. Long past the point when I would have burst into tears and run from the room never to return (if Shane hadn't stopped me) he soldiers on until he's done what he came to do. And then he gets to spar, and I always blink a few times trying to reconcile the vision of this towering giant of a Bruce Lee, my mild and thoughtful little boy transformed into a Kung Fu hero.
Of course, I can attest to the fact that he's been sparring since the womb, so maybe it isn't all that surprising.
It isn't so surprising to me, either, that Nicky already has pretty impressive sparring potential, since he practices that left hook on his siblings with the dedication of a master. What always floors me about his belt tests are his forms. They are the careful and deliberate forms of a disciplined, obedient and respectful child. Boy, does he have them snowed.
And through it all I sit there watching, nervous and proud, with a phrase going through my mind that has been experienced by parents for generations.
Hey! That's my kid!
Wait. That's my kid?
Whoa.
---------------
Presenting Belt Test 2006, the music video. Click twice:
Not that I don't find the whole process amazing and wonderful, because I do. And I believe my kids can do anything, short of getting both dirty socks into the hamper at once. Still, sitting there and watching them stick hands and feet through solid boards - I'm pretty attached to those hands and feet, and went to quite a lot of trouble to create them and keep them all in one piece for this long, after all - can be a little nerve-wracking.
Stormy, who in everyday life is a very competent child whose innate toughness I would never question, always suddenly appears to me to be a delicate flower when she's standing all alone up there. And in the next second she's reducing thick wooden boards to toothpicks and I am reminded that she is fierce and strong. It's humbling, too, when some little creature I thought I knew pretty well suddenly lets loose with a back kick that would bring a tear to Jet Li's eye.
Khy has a little more trouble with the board breaking. I think he suffers from a hereditary condition straight from me - it's called Logic. Down deep inside of us both, we know that body parts were not made for chopping wood. Still, his perseverance is one of the most awe-inspiring things I've ever seen. Long past the point when I would have burst into tears and run from the room never to return (if Shane hadn't stopped me) he soldiers on until he's done what he came to do. And then he gets to spar, and I always blink a few times trying to reconcile the vision of this towering giant of a Bruce Lee, my mild and thoughtful little boy transformed into a Kung Fu hero.
Of course, I can attest to the fact that he's been sparring since the womb, so maybe it isn't all that surprising.
It isn't so surprising to me, either, that Nicky already has pretty impressive sparring potential, since he practices that left hook on his siblings with the dedication of a master. What always floors me about his belt tests are his forms. They are the careful and deliberate forms of a disciplined, obedient and respectful child. Boy, does he have them snowed.
And through it all I sit there watching, nervous and proud, with a phrase going through my mind that has been experienced by parents for generations.
Hey! That's my kid!
Wait. That's my kid?
Whoa.
---------------
Presenting Belt Test 2006, the music video. Click twice:
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Scary monsters and super creeps
The kids and I had a costume fitting and impromptu fashion show today, which inspired this little video I like to call "Ghouls on Film." (Sometimes I'm so clever it's embarrassing.) Lame name, but fun video.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Vacation pictures
To see "part one" of the pictures from our recent vacation, go here or you can view them as a slideshow here.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Vacation Fun
Click on the PLAY button. Or, RIGHT CLICK here and SAVE TARGET AS to your computer, and then OPEN after the download completes.
And a bonus video, just for fun.
Click on the PLAY button. Or, RIGHT CLICK here and SAVE TARGET AS to your computer, and then OPEN after the download completes.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Introducing
My daughter the cheerleader:
The stunt that opened the show:
(Click twice to watch)
The cheer:
The dance:
The stunt that opened the show:
(Click twice to watch)
The cheer:
The dance:
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Enjoying the view
On the way home from Central Oregon we stopped along the way in order to allow ourselves to truly commune with the natural world surrounding us.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Autumn Kate
With a season of Veronica Mars and many chocolate chip cookies, Shane and I helped make a baby. Her name is Autumn Kate and she is beautiful and perfect and mine. I held her twice and didn't drop her. She has hair and two eyes, and toes and fingers in the right places, and she makes this noise like little baby snores that I'm completely in love with. She crinkles her forehead and eyebrows like she's just been sent to a timeout and doesn't like it at all (and she looks just like her big brother when she does it. I bet she doesn't like spicy gum, either.) My children follow her around the room, enthralled, as though she is the latest thing in video games. Khy is amazed by her ears. She was born some time after noon and she weighs 8 pounds something-something and every time I look at her I want to cry at the amazing thing that my best-friend did.
