The Taming of Tenley!: Kung Fu Surprise

It's amazing to me that Christmas was only about 8 weeks ago. I know this because it was over Christmas break that Daddy bought Tenley a chocolate shake that turned out to be a mocha shake, and the resulting caffiene rush was what prompted us to enroll our child in kung fu that very hour.

Ten's been loving kung fu. For the longest time she said she wanted to "fight like Mulan"- and now she is. She pays attention in class (which has won her 2 t-shirts!), and is unafraid of taking on the boys in her class. The quality of her kicks improved as soon as we gave her a tv tray to use as a target and showed her how to send it sailing across the room.

At first it was hard for her to understand why some of her classmates were getting belt promotions. We tried to explain that each belt color had certain moves that went with it, and you had to be able to do all those moves to advance. Every 8 classes (4 weeks) you get a "tip"- a tape stripe on your belt, and after 4 tips you can move up a belt color if you can do the form! Ten takes this very seriously, and has been practicing her white belt form almost as much as she practices gymnastics. She has 2 tips, and was happy to learn that Master Tim would be back from vacation before it was time to promote her.

So, we were totally shocked and unprepared at kung fu last Tuesday when Master Tim announced that he was promoting Ten to yellow belt 8 weeks early!! Seriously?? apparently he and Master Dan discussed it and felt that she was deserving of her promotion and felt no need to make her wait. She was over the moon- at last she too was getting a new belt!