Almost a Black Belt!

A few weeks ago, DJ had testing for his next belt – a red belt in Taekwondo.

He had been practicing daily and was anxious to take the test.

His hard work paid off and now, our DJ Man is a RED BELT! WOOT WOOT!

He is only 2 midterms and a test away from becoming a black belt and he is ready!

Congratulations, DJ Man! We are proud of you!!!!!!

DJ Meets Bill “Superfoot” Wallace

Last weekend, DJ had the opportunity to train with Bill “Superfoot”  Wallace.  Superfoot was in the area holding a large scale training at a local gymnasium Saturday evening, but DJ’s Taekwondo school had him come in just to train with these guys in the morning. How cool is that?

Doyle, DJ and I did not know who he was but DJ said that he “had” to go to the training day so we signed him up.

Then we “googled” him to find out who he was. Apparently, he’s kind of a big deal in the martial arts world. ;)

We didn’t get any pictures of the training, but the next day was an Open House where the kids could take pictures with Bill Wallace and get his autograph. DJ was REALLY excited about that. Doesn’t he look excited???

Okay, he doesn’t LOOK excited, but he really was. :) He was just recovering from a double ear infection so he wasn’t quite his excited self for the Open House.

I think his daddy was a little excited about it, too, so he even got his old belt signed.

Here the boys are hanging out with Superfoot.

 

DJ’s autographed picture that will framed and hung in his bedroom.

 

Playing Catch Up – Our Taekwondo Green Belt

We are so proud of DJ! Although I am so far behind in blogging that I didn’t blog his last belt ceremony, I am happy to announce that DJ just got promoted to Green Belt tonight!!! We are so proud of him and excited that he is still enjoying Taekwondo.

 

Next Saturday he is going to be training with Bill “Superfoot” Wallace. (I didn’t know who he was so I had to Google him.) Apparently, he’s pretty famous and DJ practically begged to train with him when he found out he was coming to his Taekwondo class to train his group! I’ll be posting pictures after the training. =)

Oh and I am going to be blogging out of order for awhile to catch you up on the two boys. They have been pretty busy! :)

Our Orange Belt (again); Change of Style (again)

A few weeks ago, DJ did his testing for his orange belt in Kajukembo. He was so proud to finally get his orange belt since that is the belt he had in Tang Soo Do before we left San Diego.





That same day, we decided to no longer continue with the program at the community center and move on to a karate school. Right after his testing and promotion, we headed over to the other gym and signed him up to start Kenpo.


He is really enjoying that he now gets to do some sparring and learn some more physical moves than what he was doing in Kajukembo.


Within the first 2 classes, he learned a few self defense moves and is really good at it.

At his last private lesson this week, the instructor (an adult) told me that he was amazed that DJ's punches and kicks against the pad could actually move him. He said that most kids that size and age don't have that much power. GO DJ!!!! He is definitely our little karate kid (can you hear the theme song to the Karate Kid movie in your head??? LOL)

Our Yellow Belt...Again! :)

This past Saturday was DJ's testing for Kajukembo. He was so excited to finally test and get rid of his white belt! :)

Here he is posing before the testing.



DJ's biggest fan. He clapped for DJ after every test.



The kids got tested in 7 different areas:
Balance
Team Work
Coordination
Focus
Control
Memory
(and something else I don't remember)

Here he is with control. He had to walk on bubble wrap and try to not pop any. If you know DJ, you know how heavy his footsteps are. His dad says it sounds like "hams hitting the floor". I thought he would pop the bubbles all the way down! He did pretty good in the beginning. Once he got to the last foot, though, it was like popcorn popping. This ended up being the one category that he needed improvement. That's okay, though. Even his instructor, Cifu, couldn't get through it without popping every step!



Here he is with kicking and punching:



He got 12 out of 14 points and received his certificate and is awaiting his yellow belt to arrive.



Our proud yellow belt.

Girlfriends and Karate

Cody has his first girlfriend (aside from the nurses that fell in love with him in the hospital).

We were at Dave and Busters last weekend and when it came time to pick out prizes, DJ went CRAZY trying to pick as many SMALL items that he could. We presented a few toys to Cody and most of them received the "toss on the floor" rejection. Just for fun, we offered him stuffed animals because those almost always were quickly thrown to the floor with a grunt of disgust that could only be translated as "how dare you hand this stuffed animal to me. Do you KNOW who I am???".

Spongebob...rejected
Patrick...rejected
Stuffed dog...rejected
Stuffed monkey...rejected
Dora the Explorer ....hugged, kissed, talked to and ACCEPTED!!!!!

(excuse the "professional" images. They were taken with my blackberry)





I didn't take a picture of it, but he even put her feet in the cup holder of his snack tray (on the stroller) so that she was propped up and standing so that he could talk to her.

Here is a picture of the two of them watching Dora on TV. Oh so in love.



After they watched Dora together, though, he tossed her on the floor and went to do something else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, a couple of pictures of DJ.

DJ has been having such a blast in karate. He misses his old Tang Soo Do class in San Diego, but is having a great time in this class because his two best buds are in the class with him. Here he is with his cousins...



Sadly, when it comes to exercise DJ takes after me and not his superman of a dad who can not run for a year or so and then one day decide to start running like Forrest Gump and run a few miles like he had been doing it for years.

This is DJ's version of a push-up. He does fine on the "up" part, but when it comes back to going down, it is more like he is doing the Downward Dog position in yoga - only the head goes down.



In his defense, though, even if he can't do a full situp unassisted (like mom) or a full pushup (like mom), he can do a mean karate punch, block and kick!

HEEEEEEEEEEEYA!

Because we are leaving this week, DJ and Doyle's Tang Soo Do instructor wanted them to receive their promotions early.

This was a surprise to DJ so he was excited about it. His instructor had nothing but praise for him and gushed at how impressed he was with DJ's ability to grasp the forms and combinations. I have to say that I am impressed, too. The respectful, obedient, quiet kid in the karate class sure isn't the same kid I bring home each night! :)

Notice the sweat dripping down his forehead? That was just the beginning of class.



Look at that determination!



The one thing DJ looks forward to is fighting his instructor. During this fight, he didn't even wait for him to complete his bow. While his instructor was still bowing, DJ gave him a sucker kick to the ankle. That's our boy! Check out his lightening fast hands!



At the end of class, DJ and Doyle received their promotions. Doyle went from a yellow belt to an orange belt and DJ received 2 pieces of electrical tape, I mean 2 stripes. :)

See the glare he has in this picture? His dad had received his belt first and DJ DOES NOT like his dad to have the same color belt as him. So, while he was getting his tape put on his belt, he gave his dad the "see, I'm still more senior than you, bow down to me" look.



Here are my boys proudly displaying their new belts and certificates with their instructor. I'm so proud of them!

Karate Promotion

Yesterday was DJ and Doyle's karate promotion. We had DJ convinced that he was getting one stripe on his yellow belt. He was excited that he was moving up to one stripe.

He didn't know it, but we had already been told that he was jumping up to his orange belt!!!

Neither Doyle or DJ knew it, but Doyle was jumping up to a yellow belt. DJ was NOT happy about that. He wanted his dad to only get one stripe! :)

Here are pictures from the promotion ceremony:

The White and Yellow Belt

Doyle's picture with Master Amen after receiving his yellow belt

When DJ was asked to take off his yellow belt, he was confused. Master Amen then asked him if he wanted to keep the yellow belt or get a new color. DJ was quick to say "a new color!" He looks confused, doesn't he?

DJ getting his new belt put on

DJ standing proudly with his new belt and certificate



DJ "reading" his certificate. I even overheard him say "mine says the same thing of yours". Funny thing is, he can't read!

The new Yellow and Orange Belts!!!

Weekend Fun

This past week, DJ went to his first "big boy's" karate class. He had a lot of fun. The Wed class was filled with kids anywhere from 6-8 years old. The Saturday class, the ages were from DJ to adults. He even had a chance to spar at the Saturday class. The first kid he sparred against was probably about 7ish. The 2nd person looked like he was about 12 or 13. DJ wanted NOTHING to do with him. He kept following DJ around and DJ just kept walking away because he didn't want to spar with him! LOL! Eventually, the instructor told DJ that he could take him, so DJ started hitting and kicking like the Power Ranger that he is!

On Monday, DJ had his "preschool" karate class. I think he just likes going to that one because he is the teacher's pet and everyone else is a newbie. At his last class, his teacher once again used him to demonstrate for the other kids. DJ even had to spar EVERY kid in the class. There were about 10 kids in there. He loved it, though.

His Master said that he wants to put DJ in front of the preschool class more often so that he can build up his confidence even more and be ready for competition. The next tournament will actually be a fighting tournament in October. We can't wait!

On Saturday, DJ and Cody attended a friend's birthday party at a new indoor play area called Playtown (http://www.goplaytown.com/). They had a blast!!!! There aren't too many pictures of DJ because he wouldn't stand still long enough for me to take his picture!

"Get outta the way lady or you and that camera will get run over!"

The prince in his castle.

A sweaty prince taking a break. The crown actually broke shortly after this picture was taken because it was drenched in his sweat!!!

Having fun in the infant play area. We need one of these at home!!!

Cody smiling at the cute kid in the mirror.

Silver Medal Winner

Here are pictures from DJ's victorious day. We are soooo proud of him!

He competed against 3-5 year olds. He was one of the younger guys in the bunch.

They also promoted the kids that day. DJ received 2 black strips. I have no idea what that means, but it must be good since only the top 3 medal winners received the 2 black stripes.

The ribbon for his medal is already falling apart. He wore it all day Saturday - including Costco, the mall and Chili's. :)

Welcome to our blog spot!

I decided to start a blog so friends and family can stay posted on the boys' happenings. :)

Our latest excitement includes DJ's first karate tournament on Saturday!!!We found out at Monday's class that he would have a tournament and testing on Saturday and that he could even receive a medal in the tournament. Usually, the instructor bribes them with candy during class, but he told them that the medal was BETTER than candy.

This set DJ into a karate frenzy. He, on his own, decided that he wanted to go to extra classes all week so that he could get good enough to win a medal.We went to additional classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Needless to say, the training has been great for him.

Yesterday, in my proud mommy moment, I watched him complete all the moves in perfect form. He was the ONLY one capable in the preschool class. Yes, I was proud!

After class, the instructor told me that DJ is a "tiger" and the only kid in all his preschool classes that is doing so well.

He is doing so good that the instructor invited DJ to participate in his what DJ calls "real" class with the big kids. You have to be 6 years old to join the class, but the instructor said that DJ (at 3.5 years old) has the maturity to participate in that class.

First off, when he said maturity, I had to laugh. DJ is EVERY BIT OF 3 and WILD! He is, however, VERY disciplined when it comes to his karate.

Wish him luck on Saturday. For the lucky few of you that we will be seeing, you will get to see his video! :)

Striking a Karate Kid Pose!