Attack bunny

As you may know Jamie recently earned his orange belt in tae kwan do. We have been so pleased by Jamie's enthusiasm for this. He really seems to enjoy it, loves the notions of rewards and ranks with the various belts and stripes and seems genuinely empowered by it, at least to judge by the variety of stern kicks that are delivered to the recycling bin on his way in and out of the house.

These are some pictures from the orange belt testing, which we attended. Really, it was quite impressive. Jamie has clearly learned a variety of fairly complex combinations of moves. We are also really pleased with the gentle version of tough love being practiced there and the focus on respect and attention. For his part, Connor is ready to start tae kwan do himself when he gets to Parker next year. While we were watching all the kids do their moves Connor was over on the side kicking and punching away. It was actually fairly tight in there so the spectators had to be pretty close to some of the participants, especially as the latter sat and waited their turn. Connor, being small, had gone to sit at the very front so he could see, but it also meant that he was partially out of our vision as we were in back. There was a very large teenage boy with a green belt testing and sitting right next to Connor while he waited. Well, someone else we knew there later told us that while the boy was sitting there next to him Connor had been practicing his kicks and punches on this kid who was probably literally four times larger. Apparently, the boy may have thought it was part of the test for the red belt because he just sat there stoically absorbing the blows. Perhaps it helped motivate him to break the wooden plank with a rear kick later.

Anyway, on the way home we asked Connor about it, and he happily proclaimed, "Yeah!! I totally crushed him!!" You have been warned.