Orange

Orange. Ninja Orange. Last week Jude tested for his Ninja Orange Belt. Now as a mom I wanted him to do well. As a 5th Degree Blackbelt who has been doing taekwondo for roughly 18 years (this is ridiculous but true...I added it up at least 3 times...I started when I was 11 and I'm almost 29) I wanted him to do more than well (ok almost perfect). So I tried to get him to practice. He would not. So I got creative. Whenever I work out in the living room (yes I actually do this at least twice a week which to me is not all that impressive and makes me feel blah because it is not 6 or 7 days a week but whatever its what I can accomplish at this time so yeah...) the boys if they are not attacking me when they think I'm vulnerable (ab work) or staring at me like I've lost my mind (probably the suicides aka updowns), they like to join in. Knowing this I cleverly added Jude's tkd curriculum to my workout. Squat, knife hand guarding block, lunge, knife strike, round kick, round kick, punch and so on. It worked. He totally joined me. But little Mr. Orange belt was not satisfied with practicing he had to inform me that I was doing knife hand guarding blocks wrong (and he was not referring to the "broken" wrist effect my block has). "Mommy, you have to do your hands like this," he said. Hmmm.

Well done Jude!

Jude with Mimi and Pops (I mean Master Lieder).