Brown Belt Decided

Iain had his first Karate for Kids test this afternoon…tested for Brown Belt Decided (aka…Brown Belt w/ Black Stripe) and he did GREAT…even better than his Tiny Tiger tests where he had to follow the instructor to do his form. Now he has to memorize it and he does AWESOME. He moved up to Karate for Kids about two months ago…though it seems like just yesterday! He’s pretty small for the class (being 6 years old…and a small 6) but…he LOVES it and does so well. He also takes it pretty serious…

He is eagerly awaiting the day he earns his black belt…which will come way sooner that it seems it should. Each time he gets a new belt…he looks back at the line of belts hanging on the wall of his school…to count how many more he has till he gets to black belt.

He also just started the Leadership program…Merry Christmas to him! It’s definitely not inexpensive (what part of Taekwondo is??) but, like everything else about karate…it’s TOTALLY worth the price. He has 7 classes a week now…4 “normal” classes (though sometimes we cut it down to 3…with school and all) and 3 Leadership class (which are by far his favorites). He’s learning so much and getting so much better every day…and having WAY too much fun!

Let’s see…what else…when he went to his doctor’s appt. in November…he was 43″ tall (3.5′ tall) putting him in the 11th percentile for height. And he’s in the 50th percentile for weight. Both percentiles are down from his 5 year appt but…he doesn’t look short when he’s in his kindergarten class so…that’s good.

Kindergarten is going FANTASTIC! He loves it and is doing very well. The other day (Thursday, Dec. 12) he wrote a Letter to Rudolph for a school project…he had fun decided what to tell Rudolph. I had to help him spell a couple words like “voice”…ones you can’t really sound out…but he did VERY well writing the letter and had so much fun, too 🙂

Blue Belt and More Swimming…

Last Saturday, Iain tested for his Blue Belt. Can’t believe he’s a blue belt already…one more belt (blue belt with black stripe) in Tiny Tigers and then he’s on to Karate for Kids! He’s SUPER excited about moving up since some of his friends moved up without him (of course…they are older but that doesn’t matter to him…he’s really eager to move up!). He’s been doing Taekwondo for almost 2 years (2 years the end of Aug.) and still LOVES it! He practices it at home all the time…even more now that we’ve actually set up his punching bag in the basement. He still has difficulty with jump kicks but he’s working on it and…look how high his kicks are getting?! No more kicking at the ground 🙂

Sporting his new blue belt.

Tomorrow is his last day of swim lessons for this session…then he has a few weeks off and then another session of lessons mid-July. His instructors let me know today that Iain passed Level 2…he’ll get the paper tomorrow telling him to move on to Level 3 🙂 So…the next session in July, he will be in Level 3. He may struggle a little because he’s little (he’s short for a 5 year old and he’s in classes with 6-10 year olds…so…they go out into deeper water where the other kids can reach but he can’t…he doesn’t really care, though) but he does all of his strokes and floats and everything PERFECT (that’s their word 🙂 ). It really is fun to watch him swim…they do some complex stuff, too I don’t know swimming terms…my kind of “swimming” is being in water I can stand in so I don’t have to swim…I can swim well enough if I have to but I definitely don’t enjoy swimming. I did when I was younger…but even then…I could merely swim well enough to get by)…and he just DOES it. It’s awesome! Considering he hardly ever swims (before last Monday the last time he swam was a year ago and he didn’t learn anything near as complicated as what he’s doing now). The instructors started doing Level 3 stuff with his class…and he can just do it. Pretty cool. Karate has definitely helped with his coordination and his listening!

His instructors also asked if he would want to join the Swim Team next year (he’s not old enough this year) so…Iain’s bouncing off the walls to join! He only has to wait a year…which is like…a decade to a 5-year-old. Haha. So…next year…he’s going to be joining the Swim Team. That’s definitely NOT something I thought I’d ever say. Talk about activities unlike any Jim and I did when we were little! But…he’s only 5 and REALLY good…and he just LOVES it. I got him his first pair of goggles Tuesday (they are SUPER goggles…sunglasses, flex fit, anti-fog and they actually WORK…no water gets in them…they have come a long way since I was little) and he LOVES them. He was slightly disappointed that he has to come up for air still so now he wants a snorkel so he can “live underwater” haha.

Doing a back float 🙂

Swim Lessons

Today was the first day of swim lessons…he moved up to Level 2 this year, which I was kind of concerned about since he only swims like 4 weeks out of the entire year but he did really well! He’s eager to learn and do things “all by himself”. His only issue is that he gets a little too eager sometimes and forgets that he needs to LISTEN. All too common but it only lasts a second so…that’s ok. Like his instructor said after his “test”…”he’s short…but he’s doing very well”. That he is…he’s the shortest in the group by a lot…which doesn’t sound like it would be an issue with swimming except he can’t reach the bottom and all the other kids can…so it’s definitely tough sometimes. But he’s a trooper.

So much fun…and he still has two more weeks in this session 🙂

New Computer!!!

We got a new computer!!! It’s super exciting because our poor little old Mac mini is 7-8 years old and it is just painfully slow. It does need to be reformatted but…I had no way of getting anything off of it to reformat it and…even reformatted…it wasn’t compatible with ANYTHING. We will be reformatting the Mac and we will still be using it for some things but…we NEEDED a new computer (it shouldn’t take me 5 minutes to update the price of an item in my Etsy store just because the computer has to “think” way too much!). Anyway…so I am using our new one! Took a matter of seconds to update multiple listings in my shop…which is fantastic! Who wants to waste time updating listings when you could be getting ACTUAL things done.

It’s going to take some getting used to. For one thing…it’s Windows 8…and we haven’t had a Windows computer in AGES (like…over a decade). And…Windows 8 is weird (different than the previous Windows I have used). What’s extremely nice…all of our devices are actually compatible with this computer!!! Even our iPods weren’t compatible with our Mac mini (which is just sad Apple…considering they’re compatible with Windows 98…just saying).

Anyway…spending some time today getting used to the computer. I will need to new version of Photoshop as I only have Mac software…but it’s not like we were up to date though…I’m using Photoshop 7 (of course…it does everything I need it to do so…). Quite am extreme difference going from 1GB RAM to 8GB RAM. All in all…really nice computer so far…

I thought I’d share a photo of Iain from Easter…since I haven’t gotten around to uploading them anywhere! We had a great day…Easter eggs hunts and family time 🙂 He was hunting for dinosaur eggs and LOVED IT!!!

Snowshoeing…

We went to a local park this morning for a Snowshoeing program. It was quite a to-do to get there…Jim accidentally took the car to work with him so he had to rush it back to us…our GPS wouldn’t find us (which I was kind of counting on to get to the park)…a few minutes into the drive the “Low Tire Pressure” light went on. Blah. But…we eventually got to the park on time! We’ve only been to the park in the spring/summer…never noticed there was a ski lodge there (and since none of us ski…really had no reason to know that anyway). Iain got little snowshoes…

All ready to go.

We headed out…the kids got some instructions…and then they were off…

Waiting to GO!

A few seconds after we started out…one of Iain’s snowshoes fell off (he has very small feet and even their smallest ones wouldn’t fit quite right…he was also the smallest/youngest kid there…but that’s ok 🙂 ). One of the instructors helped put it back on and we were off again…and then…it fell off AGAIN. So…we went back to the lodge and he got a different snowshoe and we were off AGAIN! The rest of the group was way far ahead of us by this time so…he ended up with his own private lesson…

Learning to “walk like a zombie”.

He made it quite a distance before the snowshoe fell off again…

Though he had some technical difficulties with his snowshoes due to his tiny little feet…he still had a FANTASTIC time!

When the lodge was in sight…Iain decided it was a race…and ran in his snowshoes back to the lodge…

Two months later…

‘Cause that’s how much I’ve kept up on this lately. Ah well. BUSY! I’m sure all of you who are actually reading this know I have started my own little Etsy shop (Enfys Creations) and it’s been doing insanely well for as little as I advertise! During December, I literally had at least one order a day…custom or ready-made, which is more than I could have asked for considering I just started. Awesome! 

It’s slowed down, which is a good thing, by the way. I still have plenty of orders to keep me busy and am attempting to post new items when I have the time to do it! I have a TON of items lined up…tons of fun.

Anyway…

It’s 2013 now…which is just ridiculous. I remember when Iain was born, I figured out when he’d be starting school (kindergarten)…2013 seemed so far away. Not that I would say time has flown…it’s just funny. Yep…he starts kindergarten this fall and he’s SUPER excited. It’s only half-day, which is nice…for both of us…it would be quite the shock to go from no school to full-day school. I’m sure we’d handle either but…anyway…I like half-day.

Let’s see…what else can I babble about. Really…life is just full of playing with Iain…teaching him (love school time with him!)…crocheting up a storm…watching movies/tv with Jim and playing games with both of them. Yeah…Iain is officially a “gamer” (he has been for a while but…he just played his first game of D&D minis last night…which makes him officially part of the club).

He got Skylanders Giants from Santa for Christmas and played and played and played (I have to admit…it’s an awesome game…I have my own Skylanders, though nowhere near as many as Iain…and it’s a lot of fun). We “beat” the game in a couple days…I say “beat” because we don’t consider it beating a game until we have collected everything! But it seems a lot of people consider a game “beat” when you’ve played through all the levels. Ah…what’s the fun in missing over half the game? It’s like LEGO games…what’s the fun in JUST playing through the levels once…rather silly.

Speaking of LEGO games…Iain got his belately birthday gift of LEGO Lord of the Rings the day it came out, which if I remember correctly…was Nov. 14th. There were so many release dates for that thing…can’t remember. Now…that game…was/is AWESOME! We love the LEGO games and, as I’ve told my husband many times, I don’t feel bad spending the  money on them like I would some games because we don’t just play LEGO games…we kill them…we get every last thing including all the PS3 trophies…and then…Iain still continues to play the games. He’s still playing LEGO Batman 2, which we killed a WHILE ago. He just loves them.

Ok…what other random things can I write about?

Let’s not forget karate…the other LOVE of Iain’s life…haha. He got his green belt with black stripe before Christmas…

And…for Christmas he got his black uniform. He has been asking for this since he started over a year ago…he’s super happy to have it…now to get him to wear his white one…ever again. Haha.

I’m sure there’s more I can write about…but for now…I’m off to play…

5 year doctor’s appt.

Also known as his pre kindergarten appt. I got the papers I need to register him for kindergarten and everything…I feel so on top of things (not a common thing for me!). His appt. went well…he’s in the 22% for height (yeah…he’s still a little guy) and 75% for weight (which the doctor was shocked by…I wasn’t…try to pick him up! He’s deceptively HEAVY! no…he’s not fat or anything…but somehow…he’s still HEAVY). He’s 41.5″ tall and 43.5 lbs. (I think). He had his first hearing test (unless you count that one they do at birth…which I don’t)…and he thought it was such a fun game! And he had his vision checked, which is pretty cute…with the shapes instead of letters (though he could have done the letters, too). They did a “game” to test his depth perception, too…which he thought was just great…he got to wear really coooool glasses for that game. He got all the questions they asked him correct (they were EXTREMELY easy…count, colors, shapes…so…yeah…and he got to write his name on his paper seat, which was “cool”). Everything was a fun game…till we got to the shots. Luckily…they do the flu mist vac so that was easy…but he still needed 2 shots…he was laughing and laughing while they were prepping ’cause he’s very ticklish…and the second the first needle went in…he just started WAILING! It surprised me…’cause he was laughing so much…the change was just awful…and I will admit…I started crying a little…can’t stand to see him hurt even for a good reason. But it was over fast…and then he got to pick 2 stickers. So…it was all worthwhile. AND…now he’s all set to start kindergarten next year, which he’s SUPER excited about.

Another Tournament…

We went to Iain’s 4th tournament this past weekend. He’s a camo belt with a black strip now and it was his first tournament with sparring and WEAPONS!! Last week, he started asking me if his teachers could help him with the tournament stuff (he hadn’t done nunchucks it a while because they are doing sticks in class now (which I just learned are called Bahng Mahng)) and he wanted to be prepared (plus…practicing nunchucks is FUN!). So…I asked his teachers for him on Wednesday and Thursday and he asked on Friday (which was pretty darn cute). On Friday, his teacher told him exactly what he should do with his nunchucks (the judges just tell them to “do what you know”…but honestly…that doesn’t seem to work very well with the little kids…haha…they often just stand there until the judges tell them what to do…or randomly swing them)…Iain doesn’t like doing things unless he KNOWS what to do. So…his teacher told him he should do three triangles with a swing with each hand and then end with a two-handed lunge thingy with a “hiya” (can you tell I don’t do karate? haha…”lunge thingy” is so definitely not the technical term…ah well…I know what it’s supposed to look like when he does it…that’s good enough for right now…I’m sure Iain will correct me eventually…as he always does). Iain loved it and practiced it soooooo much Friday!

Anyway…Friday night we went to the hotel…nice, inexpensive Econolodge (seriously…we aren’t made of money…inexpensive is awesome!). We were supposed to leave in the afternoon right after Iain’s karate class but…Jim had a customer picking up an MG and we figured that 2G was more important than leaving exactly when we planned… And then…we went to leave and our GPS crapped out so…since we greatly depend on that when we go to tournaments (and pretty much all the time!) we decided to go to Target to see what they had. Ended up getting a TomTom…that has way more features than our 5 year old Magellan GPS (which was great 5 years ago…but not now)…and our new one has free lifetime map updates. It would have cost $80 to update the maps on our old one…it was totally worth the extra $20 to get a new one. Love it. Anyway…so we did eventually get to the hotel around 8:30 and watched some Karate Kid before going to sleep (seemed totally appropriate 🙂 )

Saturday morning, we went to LaRoche College for the tournament. Iain was soooooooo exciting! We got there around 8:30 (after dealing with a detour…I suck at detours even with a GPS). We got there in time to see the Opening Ceremonies, which Iain LOVES!! What little boy wouldn’t want to watch a bunch of people breaking boards in awesome ways?!

Usually after the opening ceremonies, we only have to wait like half an hour before staging but…since he’s no longer a white, orange or yellow belt…we had to wait much longer. I don’t honestly know what time it was before camo belts were called but Iain was GREAT! Way more patient than I am…haha. He loved watching the specialty weapons and such (dual nunchucks is awesome!). I love watching, too…because the older kids are really good. Eventually Iain’s group was called to staging and he got to line up with the other camo belts (and green, purple and blue, I believe?). He looked SOOOOO tiny…and was very overwhelmed in line…he ended up around these much bigger/older kids and kept getting “smushed” against the wall…I made my way to him and told him to just move out of the way rather than stubbornly staying in “your spot” in line…haha…and then he was ok.

Anyway…he did AWESOME at his form…his nunchuck moves were FANTASTIC! (he did just what his teacher told him to do…complete with “hiya”, which the judges obviously got a kick out of) and his first sparring match was AWESOME (I’ve done enough venting about the second one…so we’ll leave it at that…haha…the kids will grow up eventually and learn how to spar correctly…and in the meantime…I will just appreciate the sparring at his school all the more 🙂 ).

He got two trophies…the blue one for “Following Directions” for form/sparring and the purple one for “Powerful Weapon Handling” for weapons… We are all extremely proud of him!

Funny Little Things

I have been HORRIBLE at writing here…so here’s the deal. When I feel like writing here…I will…and it will probably not be too long and drawn out…but at least it’s here so I remember in the days/months/years to come.

When my family was out Labor Day weekend, we went to the Celtic Festival across the street and there was Japanese fan dancing (don’t know why…’cause that’s not very Celtic-y). The second Iain saw it he asked to sit and watch…then they had a part where people from the audience could go on stage and learn some…and my mom went up and did it. I told Iain he could go up if he wanted to but…he didn’t. After the first song…he looked at me and asked “why aren’t I up there?”…”umm…’cause you said you didn’t want to…you can go up with grandma”…and he ran up and followed along…pretty darn cute. Not many 4 year old boys would be so eager to watch (and join in) Japanese fan dancing (that’s probably not what it’s called…I know…but that’s what it was). Jim has pictures on his cell phone…I need to get them from him and post them!

When we were at Jim’s parents to take care of their cats while they were away a couple weeks ago, Iain was playing around and leaning off the to do headstands (a common thing for kids to do…haha…I remember doing it when I was little, too)…when we were in the car going home…he said his head hurt…so I told him it was just a little rug burn so…he asked for some “rug block” so the rug couldn’t burn him anymore. Haha. Rug block…like sun block for rugs.

Autumn Jam

Was looking around online to see if you could make jam from pumpkin because I have a bunch of butternut squash from a local farmers market and…well…I’m still obsessed with jams/jellies. Very little searching lead me to a recipe for Autumn Jam. The original recipe calls for canned pumpkin pie mix but…I just substituted butternut squash and pumpkin pie spice…added some extra sugar and a little salt and…ta-da…pumpkin pie mix. I didn’t follow the directions to make the jam, either. I made it the same way I made my other jams. Brought all the ingredients except the liquid pectin to a boil…added the liquid pectin…and boiled for a minute. Made 3 pints (2 – ½ pints and 2 pints). Tastes really good already and it’s not even set (all jams/jellies taste better after they’re set but that doesn’t stop me from testing them).