November 4, 2009
Busted
Last night, I took Big I to see Yamato, the drummers of Japan. I went two years ago and it was awesome. Last night was no different. Big I was mesmerized by the show. She absolutely loved it, and it was nice to do something with her.
After the show, I took a look around the auditorium to see if any of my students were present. The University where I teach offered free tickets to the students and a free bus ride to the show. I was thinking that no one I knew was there and then I spotted him, one of the students who missed my speech class yesterday.
I pointed him out to Ax-Kick Eric, who was with us, and AKE asked me if I wanted to go bust him.
Definitely.
We made our way across the auditorium and it was as if my student sensed I was there. He turned and looked directly at me. I waved and smiled, as did he, and then I put my hands up as if to say, "What's going on?" I mouthed the words, "Where were you today?" and he got a look of desperation on his face. He started mouthing words to me and waving his hand in the air as if to tell me he had a written excuse or something.
I gave him the "Yeah right, whatever" face and headed out. Class tomorrow should be interesting.
If you haven't yet commented for your chance to win a $100 Visa gift card, head on over to my Sonicare review for your chance. Time is running out!!!
November 2, 2009
A Halloween Riddle
For Halloween, the girls were both Ariel, the little mermaid. We had some definite issues with them both being the same thing. Lil C kept telling Big I, "My dress is prettier. I look more like a mermaid." And Big I kept trying to steal Lil C's wig; Lil C had kept hers in much better shape leading up to Halloween. I'll post pictures when Mr. BBM eventually sends them to me. They're living on his camera right now.
We had a neighborhood pre-trick-or-treating party to go to on Saturday. It was nice to have dinner provided and not have to worry about it after having done a good hour of mermaid-like make-up. I happened to be having a really bad hair day myself, so I asked Big I if I could borrow her witch hat.
Immediately the girls were thrilled that I was going to dress up a bit. They kept going in my closet and picking out black dresses for me to wear. It was miserable outside, super rainy, so a dress was out. However, I put on a shirt, a black cape-like shawl I have and some black boots. I also pumped up the volume on some smoky eye shadow and put the hat on my head. The girls were upset that I pulled on a pair of jeans.
There they were standing in my bathroom, giving me a hard time and telling me I needed to shove extra pants in my waistband so I looked like I had eight legs, more like Ursula from The Little Mermaid movie. And then I had an idea.
I went downstairs, found a piece of construction paper and cut out a big letter "C." I threaded a black corded necklace through the top of it and wore the big "C" around my neck. Combined with the witch hat, I felt it was pretty obvious what I was, but I was wrong.
At the party, one of my friends came up to me and said, "So what's with the "C"?" I asked him "What's the letter?" and he said "C." Then I pointed at my witch hat. "C Hat?" he asked curiously.
Not exactly. Can you figure out what I was supposed to be?
October 29, 2009
Of Skeletons and Creative Thinking
A couple weeks ago, I bought adorable Halloween pajamas for Lil C. They are pink and when worn in the dark, you can see a glow in the dark skeleton, complete with a sparkly pink heart. They're adorable and more importantly, the kid really needed some new pajamas.
I brought them home and was so excited to show them to her, but my excitement quickly faded. She hated them. She said, "I'm NOT wearing bones."
Awesome.
So, I kept trying for two weeks. Finally, two nights ago, after being super fried from being alone with the girls all week while Mr. BBM is away, I refused to get off the floor and go find her another pair of pajamas. So, I flipped them around so she couldn't see the skeletons and asked her if she wanted to wear her new pretty pink jammies.
"Yes," she exclaimed with excitement. She asked me when I bought her new jammies, but I ignored her and helped her put them on. . . backwards, careful not to show her the bones.
It was when I put the shirt on her that she noticed something was up. The baggy butt area in the backwards pants didn't clue her in prior to this. She saw a white something on the backs of the arms as I was straightening them out and asked me what they were.
"Oh those? Those are pretty white bows. Isn't that cool that you have pretty white bows all down your jammies?" She said yes, grinned ear to ear and went happily to sleep.
The next morning, I asked her how she liked sleeping in her pink jammies. She said, "I love them." It was then that I took her into the dark powder room and showed her the glowing skeleton on the back of her pants and shirt.
"What?" she yelled, and then she looked right at me, cracked up laughing and said, "Mommy, you tricked me!"
I asked her if she was going to wear them again and she said, "Yes, I like my geleton jammies now." This morning, I went to work and my Mom was here when Lil C woke up in her backwards skeleton jammies. She doesn't mind that they have skeletons on them now, but she's still going to wear them backwards.
Sometimes you just have to think out of the box. Backwards is clearly the way to go.
October 26, 2009
Foreshadowing Different
Last week, we had a play date at our house. One of the Mom's saw a fleece blanket that was passed down to Lil C from Big I and she held it up and started telling me about the story the blanket is based on. Apparently, there's a book out there and the whole theme is that it's ok to be different. The Mom started saying some of the lines from the book. "It's ok to have crazy hair." "It's ok to wear glasses." etc. Big I received the blanket as a gift from her grandfather years ago, but I just thought it was a random blanket. I had no idea about the story behind it. I had no idea it was about to foreshadow our weekend.
Flash forward to this past weekend.
We had a birthday party to go to for a 5-year old on the street. She loves fashion so she had a fashion themed birthday party. The Mom went all out and created a dressing room and a run-way. There were two fashion shows during the course of the party. It was a lot of fun.
Both of my girls brought two outfits to change into and of course, they were both princess or fairy costumes. They were having a fantastic time.
It was after the second fashion show though, that I noticed that Big I was not being herself. I took her back in the dressing area to help her change and she was obviously upset about something. She didn't want to tell me, but I kind of forced it out of her. Apparently, she was being made fun of by a couple other girls who are around her age. She saw them pointing at her and laughing from the corner as she danced on the runway with another 5-year old friend of hers. She also heard them saying how "babyish" she was for dancing with the little kids and for wearing a Jasmine costume. This taunting continued throughout the party. Another kid told her she dances weird, but that didn't stop her from continuing to dance with her friends. She tried to shake it off and most people would not have known anything was wrong, but when we got home, she was clearly bothered.
The reason she was being picked on is the exact reason why Moms on this street love Big I. Although a 3rd grader, she can instantly transform herself into the perfect play date, no matter what. One day she'll be building an airplane out of tunnels, tubes and a play globe. The next day, she's a pirate on a play set ship. What's so cool about her is that she can get everyone involved in her different scenarios and everyone seems to have a good time. She plays with kids on our street that range in age from a couple months old to a 7th grader; and she gets along with all of them equally well. She is a neat kid, and I'm not just saying that because I brought her into this world. Ask anyone who knows her; they'll tell you the same.
I know how it feels to be picked on. What girl doesn't know this feeling at some point in their lives? And girls, they can be brutal. So I knew we had to talk about it.
I sat Big I on the sofa with me last night and put my arms around her. I told her about how much other kids love her, and how their parents do too. I told her not to get caught up in what other people think about her. I told her that the only thing that matters is what kind of person she is and how she feels about herself. I asked her if she had a good time, and she did. I asked her if she thought it would be more fun to dance with the little kids or sit in the corner and make fun of people. She picked dancing. I asked her if she thought it would be more fun to dance (even if you do dance a little weird) or sit in the corner and make fun of other people dancing. She chose dancing. I told her she has her whole life to grow up and act grown-up and that if she likes dressing up and playing with the little kids, she should do that for as long as possible. I gave her a hug that I hoped would squash all those yucky feelings and told her to think about what a good time she had with her little friends. Personally, I am thrilled that my daughter acts her young age of eight. Kids grow up entirely too fast these days.
This morning, I sent her off to school wearing a witch hat because it's crazy hat day. There wasn't a single other kid wearing a hat at the bus stop, but she walked up there with her two foot high hat on with a smile on her face. She loves spirit week.
When I came back inside, I found a little sign she had made last night. She took foam fish and dolphins and other sea creatures and made them look different. She drew hair on the one fish and lines on the one dolphin. She then wrote on it, "Different is Good!"
She is so very right. Different is good.
October 23, 2009
9th Kyu in the House
On Wednesday night, Big I was promoted to 9th kyu in Danzan Ryu Ju-jutsu. The week before, she tested and it was so awesome. It was a very serious event and she did quite well. At one point she had to do a hip throw and she did a great job.
Here's her partner, taking her down with a wrist escape.
She was tested on the basic ju-jutsu foundations like breakfalls and rolls, and then demonstrated various techniques for getting out of a finger hold, wrist grabs, lapel grabs and chokes, etc. Here she is doing a hip throw.
And here's some actual video of it happening. . .
If pride had the physical properties of helium, I would have been taking photographs from the ceiling. Here she is with her proud little sister right after testing.
The big reveal. Sensei removes the blue tape from his gi.
Getting striped. . .
The assistant instructor and all around cool guy, giving Big I her congratulations. . .
The new promotee's. Check out those grins. Check out those blue stripes!!!
I am so proud of her and so happy she's found the martial art that is right for her. It's the one thing she looks forward to doing all the time and she frequently talks about how much she loves it.
If she can throw people now, just imagine what she'll be able to do by dating age. . .
Copyright
© Copyright 2006-2019 blackbeltmama dot com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Follow Me
Blog Designed By
My Creations
Things You Could Care Less About
