Amy stepping it up

Amy's been doing tae kwon do at Top Kick for three and a half years now, and it's been really great for her. She's "graduated" to the next belt level each semester she's been enrolled. Now that she's worked her way up the ranks, however, things are getting tougher.

Amy is now a red stripe belt. Next stop...black belt. Apparently this is where things get serious at Top Kick. They require you to go to extra classes each week (beyond the usual 2 classes) and also attend a black belt test prep class on Saturday mornings. Amy diligently attended the necessary 24 classes and went for the black belt pre-test. It was a hard test. A really hard test. It was held on a Friday night and lasted about an hour and 20 minutes. And that was non-stop exercising. No messing around. It was all about stamina and determination. Amy worked so very hard, but came up a little short on the test. It was tremendously disappointing for her, especially since it was the first time she'd ever failed at tae kwon do. It was really hard for her and also very hard for us to watch - we knew she'd worked so diligently and to see her not rewarded was sad. We all understood where her weaknesses were during the test, and knew it was fair that she didn't pass. That didn't make it any less disappointing for her, though.

After this happened we weren't sure how Amy would react. We were afraid that she'd be so discouraged that she'd want to quit altogether - she's been wanting to try something different lately anyway. We managed to convince her to go to a class a few days after the test, but we had to resort to a bit of bribery. But she did it, and felt better for it. Then we took a week off. It was a little tough to get her to go back again but she did it. Now she seems resolved to work toward her black belt again. I believe in her and know she can do it, now that she knows more clearly what to expect from the testing process, which was very different from any past testing she'd done.

I don't think anything can stop her if she puts her mind to it. We're rooting for her!

The birthday bash, etc.

The birthday festivities outside the movie theater.

For Reed's "kid" party, he wanted to go to the movies with some friends. He tried to hold out for the second "Hunger Games" movie, but couldn't wait that long so he settled on the sci-fi movie "Ender's Game." After some schedule crunching, we finally found a date that all three of the friends he wanted to invite - Robbie, Harrison and Matthew - could attend. Tod picked them up right after school on a Monday, and off they went.

They saw the movie at a relatively new theater chain in our area called Alamo Drafthouse. We've been there once on a date and once as a family, so Reed knew the drill. At Alamo, you actually eat your meal during the movie - and of course have popcorn too. Outside Alamo there's a play area that the boys took full advantage of after the movie – Tod left them to their fun for more than 45 minutes before rounding them up for home. Then, because he's working on that Dad of the Year prize, he stopped at McDonalds for McFlurries on the way home.

Reed was beside himself when he got home – "Mom, we had SO much fun! I think half the fun was playing outside after the movie. And half the fun was the ride home. And half the fun was the movie! And half the fun was the ride there!" I said "It sounds like you had twice the fun, then!" and he agreed. It was terrific to see him so happy with how his birthday turned out.

Something new this birthday was that Reed really didn't want to know what he was getting for his gifts. And that's gone even further with Christmas coming up – he wants to generally say he wants Legos, and let people pick them out for him so he'll be surprised. This year's birthday was so spread apart, he was able to spend some birthday money before he'd even gotten his family gifts. He struggled because he wanted to shop and wanted me to redirect him if he was leaning toward buying something somebody had already bought him, but then that'd let him know what he was getting. It's kind of interesting that it's gone this way. Of course his "generic" Christmas list includes "new computer" which is also a whole new level of gift requesting!

Something Reed's been doing lately that's perplexing to me is going to bed early. Yes that's right I said going to bed early. What?!? He told me the other day that it's his time to sit and think, while he listens to his podcasts. He's not getting up crazy early like he sometimes used to (partly because of the switch to or from daylight saving time [I can never remember which way it goes]) either. He just goes to bed a half-hour, sometimes more, sometimes less...early. We don't question it!

OH! And one more thing...Reed is doing a new thing where he says things like "Someone definitely didn't win the class geography bee" and I say "Huh?" because I didn't now anything about a class geography bee. And he'll repeat it and I'll very directly say "Are you telling me you won your class geography bee?" Then we went back and forth with questions and answers about the geography bee and then the conversation is done. And then 15 minutes later he says "I can't believe Mom believed that I won the class geography bee!" and then I'm ready to strangle him because I have no clue that the truth is. What a nut. I don't know what it's about – is he playing around feeling powerful because he knows something that I don't? Who knows, it's crazy! And so yes...he DID win his class' geography bee, and this Wednesday he'll participate in the 4th and 5th grade geography bee – hope he does great!