Yellow Belts

Saturday the girls had their karate tests, to promote from white belt to yellow belt. In order to qualify for the promotion, they had to attend 12 classes, earn all 5 tips required on their white belt and then perform it all during the test on Saturday in front of a panel of judges and spectators. No problem for these little karate experts. They did great! We had to wait in suspense from Saturday afternoon, until their class this morning to see if they passed.

So proud of Reagan. I always have to remind myself that she is hanging STRONG in a class full of kids MUCH older than her. You would never guess, when watching their class that she wasn't the same age as everyone. Her belt test was HILARIOUS! First Sensei asked her to count in Japanese, which she did....FAST. Sensei laughed and said jokingly, "Could you possibly count any faster?". Reagan didn't miss a beat, she immediately began counting again....FASTER! At the end of her test, after she had performed her skills she was answering more questions for the judges. They were giving her rapid fire questions about basic karate, which she was answering in perfect rhythm. Their final question, "Who's stronger, Reagan or Addison?". She never broke tempo, just answered, "Addison!". We got a good laugh out of that and Sensei made sure to tell Reagan that she wasn't so sure about that.

Addison did great at her test, too! She is a definite leader in the group. The girl has some powerful kicks! Two grown men were holding the board that she was kicking for her demonstration, and she moved them back about a foot with each kick! I think she surprised them.

Here is my little white-headed spectator! She does a great job hanging out at the studio every Tuesday. And, she has a jump start if she ever wants to start karate. She already knows how to count to 1o in Japanese and can say several basic words.

Like Reagan, she is still at the age where everything is very literal. We got a good laugh from her on Saturday morning. She had been eating a banana in her carseat. She had 1/2 the banana left over in her hand and much of it smushed all over her face. I handed her a wipe and told her to "Wash off her banana". When I looked back a minute later she had the wipe just scrubbing down the 1/2 banana she was still holding. She never wiped a bit off her face, just "Washed her banana!".