Karate Kid

I signed Eli up for a small 8 session, community karate class.
At first he told me he didn’t want to do it. He literally threw a fit. I tried to explain to him what it was and how much fun it would be. We even showed him videos on the internet so he could see what exactly it was. He still stuck to his guns and said he was not going to do it.

Unfortunately, Eli is a lot like me and gets very nervous in new situations, which I think is the real reason he didn’t want to go.

Finally I said to him, “Eli if you go to karate you will become stronger and tougher. You will learn how to kick and beat up bad people. You know what? You can even beat up uncle Lance.”(Ryan’s brother, who teases Eli relentlessly). He looked at me and said, “I will learn how to beat up uncle Lance?” I said, “Yep. So anytime he bugs you, you can use your karate moves.” He said, “Ok. I want to go to karate.”

Now most of you will think I am a bad mom for allowing my kid to beat someone up, but truth be told sometimes I would like to beat Lance up. So I figured it would probably be more acceptable for Eli to beat him up than me, and we would both feel better. And hey, it was what convinced him to go. So it was a win-win situation.

And guess what? He loved it!! But of course, the very first class they told them they shouldn’t use their karate moves on people. Eli told me that and I said, “Eli there is always an exception to the rule! You can only use them on bad people and Lance.”

On the last day they did a board breaking ceremony. If they broke the board they got their white belt. Eli broke his board with flying colors, and was so proud of himself. I was too.

Tying on his white belt

His buddy, Danny took the same class. He also did a stellar job breaking his board.

While the boys were practicing for their board breaking Hallie and Danny's little brother, Matthew, were dancing and playing together. They were so cute.