Cammie Kung Fu

His before class pose and excitement.

I know I haven't updated in a long time and I have no real excuse for that other than I rarely go downstairs to the computer now that I have my laptop. I can't and don't load pictures on my laptop as to not bog it down so the blog has to wait for me to got down to the guest room. And lately that hasn't been happening. Tonight I was down here loading pictures so I thought I would at least put one new blog up.

A few weeks ago we received a call from a local Tae Kwon Do studio. During the Chili Cookoff at Kenzie's school back in November (I think) they were doing a demonstration and gave the kids a chance to break a board. They also had the parents fill out a card for a chance to win a free month of lessons and a free uniform. Well this month they drew Cam's name. We had been thinking about getting him involved in some sort of activity outside of school for a while. I was between going back to swim lessons or t-ball. But this fell into our laps and seemed to be a great idea. Cam as many of you know had major issues with anxiety for a long time when he was littler. He wouldn't let anyone, including Rob, anywhere near him for a long time. Not only that but he wouldn't let me be anywhere away from him where he couldn't easily reach out and touch me. Don't even think about me leaving him any where for any length of time. After a little bit of Early Intervention and the great ladies at Gymboree he is doing really really great. He now very happily goes to school and had no problem staying with a babysitter. There are still moments that puzzle us and his anxiety pops up but there aren't that many moments anymore. And when they do show up they rarely last for more that a few minutes. The one thing we would like now to work on him is to have self confidence and be a little bit more outgoing in new situations.

So today was his very first lesson. He was so excited to go. I had a hard time getting him to take a nap (that never happened) and I think that was because he was so excited. Cam got dressed and hurried out the door. Everything was great until we stepped in the door. He shut down in the blink of an eye. After we got his shoes off and sat on the bench I could see that the anxiety was building. His poor face was red and he had tears in his eyes. So I picked him up and snuggled him on my lap for a few minutes before I put him down and told him that is was just about time to go in to class. We stood by the wall of windows and slowly inched our way to the door. As we got to the door one of the teachers was talking to a parent by the door and when she was done talking she reached out for his hand. Surprisingly he took it and quietly walked out to the class. After that it was no problem. He was so good. He stood in line quietly and followed every direction. After some warm up exercises they ran some laps and as he circled around in my directions I got a huge smile and a wave. After class he spoke a little bit with one of the head teachers about he homework they gave him last week (a chore chart and learning some Korean) and was awarded his first belt. So now he is the proud new owner of a white belt and is looking forward to next weeks class. Hopefully it will go even better than this week.