the sidlingers

So maybe you’ve noticed that updating hasn’t really been a regular thing lately…sorry, we’ve been swamped.   We have karate, swimming lessons and end of the school year stuff going on almost every day of the week.  It’s getting hard for me to remember which bag of gear to grab on the way out the door as the days go by. 

Things should slow down by the end of the month though and I’m sure daily entries will come back into style as I spend my days figuring out new ways to keep Daniel occupied throughout the summer.  Until then expect big chunks of updates like this every few days or so (or you know, every two weeks if we’re going to be honest here).

Daniel started swimming lessons sometime in the last month or so, it’s all kind of a blur now.  At any rate, he is doing extremely well and loves it so much that I wish we could tear down our garage and put in a swimming pool for him.  Due to miscommunication and an ill instructor, he’s only had two lessons so far (out of five) and is not yet swimming on his own, but is very comfortable in the water (maybe a little too much) and isn’t that far from no longer needing the noodle (where were these things when I was learning to swim?).

Preschool is going well.  I am truly going to miss him being there and am already getting teary-eyed knowing that we will be saying good-bye later this month.  Adding to my growing list of things to do, I am heading up teacher appreciation week next week for all the teachers there, it’s something that kind of got passed to me at the last minute, but I am happy to do it.  They have provided Daniel with a happy, safe and positive environment for the past two years and we are truly grateful for that.  His teacher this year has proved to be amazing.  She is super teacher…for example, this month’s theme is "Ocean", she brought in a swimming pool filled with sand and shells and put a smaller pool in that filled with water…into a classroom full of five year olds who don’t always listen so well.  The fact that she has the courage to do this knowing her students so well, just speaks volumes to me.  She is really interested in seeing them learn and is willing to deal with the mess that involves.  I can only hope we will be so lucky with Daniel’s future teachers.

In other school news, next week I will no longer go inside to pick up Daniel in the afternoons.  In order to prepare the Pre-K class for the K-word (I’m in denial at the moment, please bear with me), they are dismissing the children from outside.  The handful of parents and grandparents who pick up will form a car line, similar to the ones found at any given elementary school and the children will be escorted to the cars.  I am not ready for this.  I am thinking another year of preschool would be good for him…and also?  We will not be celebrating any 6th birthdays next January…it it just not possible!

For anyone interested and able to attend, his preschool graduation will be on May 26th at 9:30am.  I will be seated with the other mothers trying to hold back their tears as the children entertain us with songs and ultimately receive their diplomas.  Any emotional support would be appreciated…please bring waterproof mascara and plenty of tissues.

Now on to karate…again, he’s doing very well (do you expect anything else?) and recently graduated to a junior blue belt (only four more belts until he gets to the weapons! Watch out!).  Today he participated in a tournament between the three schools (there are three schools all owned by the same guy).  The following account of today’s events are proof that it is a good thing that we did not have a girl and should we have had a girl, why she would never, ever participate in pageants.  I think I may have the stage mom illness.

Despite a long time delay in the tournament times, Daniel was ready to go when the Junior Blue Belts were finally assigned their numbers to compete.   I had already told him a few times that he should just do his best and tried to explain the scoring system to him a little.  I’ve had a hard time trying to figure out what to say to him when telling him to do good.  I want him to win, but I don’t want to pressure him to win.  Winning isn’t everything, but I want him to understand competition.  I don’t know how to tell him that if he wants to win first place, he has to work to win it, but if he doesn’t win that’s ok too, so I’ve just kept it at "Do your best."   The first part of the competition was the Kata, where the children perform a number of different moves (sort of like a karate dance routine).  There were eight kids in his group, Daniel was the last to go.  I watched the boys before Daniel and when number five finished his routine I turned to David and said "James(#6) is going to get first and Luke(#7) will get second, if Daniel (#8) will just do the moves correctly he will get third place."  I was judging other little kids.  In all fairness, most of the kids were missing major parts of the Kata or doing moves backwards, it wasn’t like I was being nit-picky.  It was finally time for Daniel’s turn, I really felt nervous and my heart was racing.  He did a not perfect, but really good Kata.  He did all the moves correctly and I was very, very proud of him.  From where we were standing, we were unable to see the scores that had been awarded, but I still felt like Daniel finished strong in third place.  After just a minute or so, they had all the boys line up for the trophy presentation.  I fully expected them to call Daniel’s name for third place and had my camera ready, but they didn’t.  They called another little boys name.  A boy, who in karate class, looks to Daniel for the right moves in the Kata.  A boy who had done well, but not as well as my boy.  I correctly predicted first and second places and James and Luke earned it, but I still feel like Daniel was robbed.  He did a better Kata than the boy who won third and I told Daniel so.  I whispered in his ear and told him he did so good and I was so proud of him and that he should have won third place and then quickly added "don’t say that to anyone else, that would be rude." 

He still had sparring to compete in and after getting all his gear on, we sent him to sit on the sidelines and wait.  While waiting (no more than five minutes or so), I went over at least twice and quietly gave him pointers, "Remember, kick, punch, punch," "go after him, be aggressive" "don’t back up" and I sent David over there once to remind him the same.  Sparring has been difficult for Daniel because really, who like to get hit?  And we’ve been telling him for the past five years to not to hit anybody and now we’re encouraging him to beat up this other kid.  I wasn’t really expecting him to win the sparring portion of the competition and he didn’t but, he did give it his best shot.  The rules of sparring indicate that the first one to five wins, punches to the head being 1 point and kicks to the body being 2 points.  Daniel’s opponent got three or four points on him before Daniel scored once, but then Daniel got a good kick in and I thought maybe he had a chance.  Instead of taking pictures, I was caught up in the fight, waiting for Daniel to glance at me so I could mouth instruction to him.  In the end, the other kid won 5-3 and Daniel got to leave with a small trophy for sportsmanship, which is really all he wanted anyway.  And I have to say that I am so very proud of him for the way he acted and the way he performed, there is no way that I could not be.  But, I still think he got robbed.