More Along the Random Line

So Jack and I--and actually Anna--are on vacation.  We went down to Connecticut on Sunday for the annual Bailey family birthday extravaganza.  We were meant to meet up with my friend Kristie and her girls for our annual Presidents' Day get together.  Unfortunately, the same thing that crawled through our house a week and half ago was about to crawl through their house.  I'd like to come up with something fun to do in April.  Mystic maybe? 

Today was spent in the absolute hedonistic endeavor of reading.  The kids and I ran a couple of errands and then we all just did want we wanted.  The kids played their "batteries" (Leap Frog Explorers) and I read.  We watched "Wall-E" and "Despicable Me."  Tomorrow we've got to head off to the eye doctor, the prospect of which is enough to send each of us (including poor Dr. LaRocca) in search of our happy places.

Jack won an award at school.  He earned "Good Citizen of the Month" for the Month of February.  I'm so proud.  Amazingly, beside myself proud.  He brought the award with him to tae kwon do yesterday.  When he was taking off his shoes he wondered, aloud, if he would get a special star.  The place gives stars for a bunch of things--earning five stickers, bringing in your report card, doing the activity of the month.  I told him that I wasn't so sure that he would get a star, but the girl behind the counter who had listened to the conversation made a big fuss over the award and said that he would definitely get a star.  So at the end of the class, they bring the kids up to the front of the class one by one.  The kids get a sticker if they have a paper from school.  They get a star if they have the things mentioned above.  Yesterday, they called Jack up and just handed him his paper back.  They didn't give him a star or a sticker.  So Jack asked the master for his star, showing him the award.  The master was in a hurry to get on with the next class and he got a sticker from one of the teachers and then he gave Jack a high-five and sent him on his way.  Jack came back toward me and his little lip was quivering.

When I figured out why he was weepy, I told him that I didn't really care what he got from Master Pina, I was incredibly proud of him.  I was so proud of him, I was going to buy a frame so that I could hang it up on my wall.  The girl behind the counter was floored.  She kept telling him that he really should have gotten a star.  Jack got all excited about me hanging up the award on the wall in my classroom--don't know where that came from, but I fostered that because it distracted him from crying.  We even took him out to Chili's that night for dinner.  Chili's has surplanted the 99's as his new favorite restaurant.

I'm frustrated with the tae kwon do place.  When Jack first started, there was another little boy there who was a little bit quicker and often got Jack in trouble.  Jack would be telling the kid not to touch him or not to talk to him, and Jack would get yelled at by the master.  I got so pissed one day by it that I was rendered speechless and John had to go in and deal with it.  Things improved, and things were great until they instituted the freakin' student of the month award.  Jack has not won it and it is something he wants more than air.

I wouldn't mind that Jack hasn't gotten it but for two reasons.  The first is that the kids who have gotten it have been lovely kids who are not necessarily focused or as skilled as Jack.  In fact, the last two have been complete space shots.  Cute, lovely kids, but not Jack.  The second reason is that Jack knows.  He knows that he's more focused, better behaved, more serious than anyone else in the class.  "Why didn't I get it this time?"  He's getting really tired of me telling him that I was so proud that it didn't matter to me what color his belt is (the Student of the Month belt is red, white and blue).

So I've decided that I'm giving this Tae Kwon Do place until March 3rd.  If my child is not wearing a red, white and blue belt by March 3, we will be trying to find a new place.  Seriously.  What message is this place sending if they are rewarding the kids who put in half-ass effort (of course, they're 5 and are therefore half-assed by developmental progression) and ignore the kids--namely Jack--who work their asses of and do everything the damn master says to do both in and out of the tae kwon do place.  Jack wants to please.  He wants to please me, his dad, his teacher, and this shmuck at tae kwon do.  Fortunately, three of those four are very easily pleased.  Unfortunately (and fortunately), Jack is not the typical 5 year old (6 year old) who is oblivious to the world outside of his own needs and experiences. 

Anna starts pre-school on Monday.  I'm nervous.  I really am.  I keep telling her she's going to school on Monday, but she keeps telling me, "No."  Of course, the other day, she was sitting up on the back of the recliner (which she was already told not to do).  She slipped off and landed on her face on the arm of the chair.  She has a lovely bruise on her face that will turn yellow and purple in time for school on Monday.

Thanks to Netflix, we have all the seasons of "Scrubs."  Love that show!  It's nice to laugh out loud about something.  My favorite line ever is, "Who's got to thumbs and doesn't give a damn?...This guy!"  The visual is needed to  really make it work, but you get the point.