Before Christmas break I informed Claire’s karate instructors that she would be out for two weeks for our trip back east. Since I knew tip testing was right when she returned, I asked her instructor if i could video record the steps. We video taped it, and it looks really hard. She had to do a jump kick and something that looked like a flying front kick. It looked terribly tough.

The first week I forgot about the video, but then I sent it over to Donna and I’m not even sure if Claire’s papa really saw it. Claire just wanted to be silly over break and would only kick and hit to mess around. So, mostly she didn’t practice.

When we returned this weekend, I resigned myself to the fact that she’d probably not get a tip this month and definitely wouldn’t have enough time in to get a new belt. Today I took her home early so she and I could watch the video and try to practice before class tonight. When watching the video, Claire kept trying to do everything backwards because she was standing towards her instructor’s video. She couldn’t get the whole concept of the reflection of the video.

I kept trying to get her to let me show her how to do it, and she kept getting frustrated. She began getting irate and was yelling about how she knew how to do it. I challenged her to show me the moves, but she kept refusing. I finally just took her to class and stopped trying. We had a few errands to run before class, so we got there very early. She was able to watch the classes before hers but she rather played. She kept telling me to leave her alone and she was being really stubborn. I tried to get her to watch the tip testing in the class immediately before hers, but she was yelling and kept trying to get away. I was so mad I was going to spank her and drag her out of there before her class or I’d just let go.

I let her go and she ran onto the mat for her class. I didn’t even watch at first, but then they were practicing the moves. She kept screwing around and her teacher had to stand there with her. Then it was finally tip testing time.

She got up there when it was her time, jumped into position and immediately did the entire routine almost perfectly. Her teacher asked her to repeat her kicks, which she did as best as a 4 1/2 year could. He congratulated her (and not everyone was passing!), gave her high five and sent her back to her seat. She immediately flipped around and gave me a look that said, “What was the worry?”

As she smirked, I couldn’t help but chuckle under my breath. After the last kid tested, they all came out to get drinks, and she walked up to me with her hand on her hip and literally said “See Dada, I told you so.”

(Epilogue: It also turned out she has enough hours in to belt test for her white/blue/white belt this weekend.) Oh boy.

Before going to Pittsburgh Claire was eager to get another tip on her karate belt. For young children, tips come before belt changes. They have several levels of white/color belts that are tipped before they move onto full yellow, etc… When we returned from Pittsburgh, Claire was really excited because they were tip testing the next week but I was worried because she’d missed a month of classes. I asked her instructor to show her how to do the moves she needed to know while I watched, and she and I practiced every day for a week.

The following week she did tip test the first day of the week, and she immediately did the entire series of blocks. She was really excited to pass the test so quickly, and after class the instructors told us she had enough tips and experience to belt test that weekend. Saturday afternoon Donna and I took her into the dojo and they were packed. Parents lined the place with cameras waiting for their child to perform. They were testing all levels from white/yellow all the way through brown. It was really a cool event, and Claire went along with it very well even though we had no idea what half the process was like.

Eventually it was Claire’s turn. She listened, performed, and passed! We were really excited, and we could tell she was terribly happy as well.

Today at karate Claire was early, sitting with other kids, and watching the other class. She suddenly shrieked, began to cry, and ran to me. “He punched me in the face!” she screamed.

I scanned the room. “Who?” I demanded.

“Him.” She pointed at a four year old boy near where she was sitting. I immediately jumped up, took three huge steps across the room, leaned down into this little guy’s face, and said “Don’t even think about touching my kid again.”

He timidly whispered “Ok” as he looked like he was about to pee himself.

Hahaha they won’t mess with my kid. The teen years sure’ll be fun.

Recently two pretty cool things happened. I was off to Maricopa Tech on May 19th and Donna took Claire to karate. Afterward Claire told Mama that she got a tip on her karate belt. Donna was surprised, but then Claire showed her. Donna completely missed Claire graduating a level, which I thought was hilarious. Claire’s now running around waiting to be tested again since the first three levels don’t necessarily go in order, so you can do one or another first or second… etc. Each day she wants to know when her next tip test will be, and I encourage her but I don’t know their schedules.

Then also in gymnastics, we’ve waited for her to graduate from this level for sometime. One week we thought she was done, but then she wasn’t. The next week she was tested, and then her instructor had her do things for the next level. She did really well and passed! She moved from the 10am course to the 8:30am course. We didn’t realize the next level is now 45 minutes long, so she gets more instruction time which works well. Then it’s great for an early brunch.

Here’s a shot of her getting her gymnastic medal, and, of course, you can tell how excited and happy she is.

Hey you! Yeah, you. The owners of Karate clubs, gymnastic gyms, indoor pools. Yes, the people who own and run the places where you want us to bring our children. The places where you want us to spend our money. I got an idea for You. Wireless. Free WiFi! Tonight I was at Karate with Claire, and there are five networks I can hit from there. They are all locked. At SwimKidsUSA they have a network IN THE BUILDING and NO Access!! Nada. Bummer.

I bet you’d get more business if you had these things set up and turned on. Most businesses have internet now, so add a wireless modem for less than $100.00. Open it to customers (you can password it if you want, and just tell customers the password. Change it monthly if you want.) If I convince one more parent to bring their kid here because they can work while the kid takes classes, I just made you about $100.00 a Month! They do one class at a place like SwimKidsUSA, they’re stupid not to add another for half price, which bumps them to almost $100. This is monthly, guys! Consider it. I know I’d sit there longer and let my kid play more, get her more into your programs so she wants to take more classes, which makes me give you more of my money. Think about it.

We’d been attempting to come up with a cool place to have Claire’s birthday party, and we also wanted a place where we’ve not really been to a party. When Claire joined Karate recently, they offered her a free birthday party and we jumped on it. They have a two hour block on a weekend, and we chose today since my schedule isn’t great on Saturday’s this month. Donna set everything up from the cake and balloons to being in charge of RSVPs for Claire’s friends. This morning I ran around to get everything Donna had ordered and we got to Sandoval’s Freestyle Karate at around 1:30PM.

Her friends came at 2PM and Mr Garrett, her regular teacher, had cool activities for the kids while the parents were able to just sit and enjoy ourselves. I ran around shooting photos while they had a mini-lesson including board breaking. Later we all ate pizza and birthday cake before Claire opened her presents (with the help of Raegan!)

While her actual birthday isn’t until Wednesday, she had a wonderful day with her friends today. Next up is making cupcakes for her school party Wednesday, opening family presents Wednesday night, and playing with everything all week with Mimi.

Claire’s taking karate now, which requires her to wear a starched, bleach white karate uniform four days a week. Well, climbing in and out of cars is dirty and so are parking lots. It’s quickly becoming a chore to put on and take off this uniform as we come and go and fit karate in among other things. Today, after karate, we were heading to ASU to pick up a friend. Claire hopped into her car seat and strapped herself in quickly, but as I got on the road she checked with me about where we were going and how we had some errands to run, and then she grabbed a blanket we keep in the back seat and tossed it over her head. I knew she was tired or thought she was playing, but after what seemed like 14 nanoseconds, she tossed off the blanket (almost as if ti cry TADA!) and she was full clothed in a really cute blue plaid short set with pink tank. She smiled at me like she was Helen Slater in that cheesy Supergirl moving from like 1983. Remember the one where Helen Slater was getting a few jobs because her brother was suppose to be the next Jack Nickolson? Anyway, Claire gave me this smile, like “this is how I roll and I’m ready to rock, Dada…”

Helen has her phone booth; Claire has her fleece moose blanket!

Used under (cc) from Mark Owens, 2009.

Disclaimer: No I don’t advocate allowing your 3/4 year old unbuckle her car seat & strip in public.

Claire’s 4 in a few weeks here, but the other day we were forced to give her her own Google Calendar. She’s accumulated enough weekly events that we’ve moved her to her own calendar. Haha yes, with Karate now four times a week, we were both done with her events crowding our own calendar items. Between gymnastics, karate, and swim, this girl’s got it made. Stuff to do all of the time. Our little social butterfly has her fingers in everything, including a brand spanking new own Google Cal. One of her grand mothers with whom we shared it (she’s Google savvy) responded only with “oh yoi”. Now if I can just get Claire to put her own events on the calendar, drive herself there, and get a part time job to pay for it all!