Orange Belt accomplished!

Big day in the little man’s life today. 100 days of school has officially been reached the same day as he earned his orange belt in Taekwondo.

I missed the 100^th day festivities completely, but I was on hand to document his first ‘level-up’ in the martial arts.

I screwed the pooch, though, and missed the most impressive part of his performance. During a question and answer period, our usually reticent little future Jedi actually raised his hand to answer a question some other kid was fumbling. Without the instructor asking for volunteers to raise their hands. And when she called on him, he not only got it right—a question he and I had never discussed, so he must have been paying attention in class—but he remembered to address her as “ma’am,” too.

Which is something we had discussed.

It was freaking awesome.

As was the pummeling my torso took from him directly before and after class. Prior to enrolling in Taekwondo, this was a kid who would never, ever have hit, except in rare fits of pique. A controlled, playful outburst was beyond him. Now, he has to be asked politely to stop hitting me in line at Krispy Kreme; it’s making it hard for the lady to understand my voice, I sound like I’m on a bus traveling over rough terrain.

He already knows the jargon better than I do, and never misses an opportunity to correct me when I get it wrong. On some level, he’s really connecting with something about this whole, larger experience. He’s even taking to barking “yes, sir” at me from time to time, and not in an insouciant way; in a task-appropriate sort of way. It’s never something I aspired to and won’t encourage it if it looks like it’s going to become the norm, but Goddamn, my Dad would be impressed!

Taekwondo is officially something I don’t have to provide the motivation for any longer. He’s got the wind at his heels, an orange belt around his waist and the world is his exercise mat, baby.

At least until it becomes a privilege we can threaten to withhold to compel obedience, which ought to be any day now…

Until that tragedy, however, bask in the triumph: