Taekwondo Tournament

Carter participated in a Taekwondo (TKD) Tournament today at his TKD school.  Honestly, I was very much against him signing up for this.  He’s only been doing TKD for about 3 months.  He’s still the lowest belt level possible (white).  I was thinking that he would be the youngest, smallest, least experienced kid there and it would be a disappointment for him. 

Well, I was right on the youngest, smallest, least experienced part.

Given his level and (in)experience, he could really only participate in the board breaking portion of the tournament.  I was definitely not excited about this because he’s never tried to break a board before.  I was so nervous for him to try this in front of an audience.  To make matters even worse, they started with the least experienced kids and worked their way up through to the black belts.

You can see him in the picture below with one board in front of him and one board behind him.  The goal is for him to punch through the one in front of him and then whip around and punch through the second board in one fluid motion.

Carter didn’t break the first board on his first attempt.  But he totally stuck with it and on his third attempt (and after he calmed down a bit) he punched that thing in half. He quickly turned around and broke the second board into three pieces on his first try!

Sorry for the terrible quality of the photo but I was ridiculously nervous for Carter.  In fact, I only got that one photo because I think I was holding my breath the whole time.

Needless-to-say, Carter was beaming with pride afterwards (as was I).

Carter earned a participation trophy which he was thrilled about until he saw that it was possible to earn bigger trophies.  

PS – No, I was not thrilled that my son was strong enough to punch through a piece of wood, I was thrilled that he had the confidence and focus to do it.  I cannot say enough good things about TKD.  It has taught him confidence, respect, and self discipline and is a fabulous work out for him twice a week.  AND, most of all, he loves it.

New Bedroom Furniture

With a baby on the way, we needed to get Carter some new bedroom furniture. His furniture is actually part of the nursery set and so we need to move his dresser, nightstand, and bookcase into the baby’s room.

We decided to upgrade Carter to an even bigger “big boy” bed.  He now has a full size (aka, double) bed.  We are planning on this set lasting him for at least the next 13 years…at which point he’ll be sleeping in a crappy, twin-sized dorm bed.

 

I still need to find that perfect picture or two to hang above his bed.  It’s looking rather bare up there.  Do you remember the mod-podged stars from this post?  They’ll be moved to the area above his bookcase to the left of the bed.  I have a trophy shelf type thing on order that will go were the stars were originally hanging. 

Clearly there’s more work that needs to be done but we are making progress (which is more that I can say about the nursery these days!).