Friday, December 04, 2009

THE NO GOOD, HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, VERY BAD WEEK

They were supposed to belt test tonight.

They were pre-registered, pre-paid for, and had been practicing for weeks for this.

No more tip testing, and tip taking-away, and tip re-earning, and tip re-removal.

They had finally stuck it out long enough to earn all their tips and were finally going to move out of white belts.

AND THEN THEY WENT AND MESSED IT ALL UP!!!

Both of them.

Without rhyme or reason. Without an excuse or justification.

He came home with 2 orange cards and a yellow card this week, and Amy even overhead some other parent referring to him as a troublemaker.

And Saia was no better, ending up with a POOR on her behavior rating for Monday-Thursday, a POOR (!!!), although her teacher made sure to emphasize what an angel she was today. (Yeah, I'm sure she was -- knowing full well she was belt testing tonight, that little sh*t!!)

But this is BY FAR their worst behavior week at this school, and we're at a complete loss for what happened. I mean, except for the fact that we just came off of a week break, which I guess could have had some affect on them, but other than that, everything else was exactly the same. Same schedule. Same routine. Same everything.

Except for the demon children that possessed my babies.

That's kinda new.

So, what the hell are we supposed to do!?!?

We were supposed to go the school's holiday store after school today so that they could spend their allowance on small gifts for each other and for a few friends. But that's out.

Then, on the way home, I called the dojo and cancelled their test. Flat out cancelled it.

"NOOOOOO!!" they both screamed.

Cancelled. After 2 months of hard work. Two and three times a week. Rain or shine. Grumpy or not. After they did so well in the competition. Were really looking forward to moving onto the next belt level. And now it's gone.

Now, everyone else in their class will be a belt ahead. Everyone else will get to cut in front of them in line and move them over because they'll be outranked -- always. Everyone else, despite their own behavior (which we see examples of in vivid color at every single practice), will still have been there tonight and get to think and act like they're something better than my kids.

And yes, OF COURSE we thought about taking them anyway, too. The damn thing was already paid for. I turned down TWO Christmas party invitations to stay home tonight. Their uniforms were bright white and ready. The camera was charged. The Mema was on hold just waiting for a text to hear how the grandbabies did.

But how could we do that? How could we go back on our word? Of the 7 basic rules they're supposed to be following, they smashed over half of them this week alone!! There's just NO WAY we could not stand by what we said. No way. They knew what they were doing. They were prepared. We told them every single day. They understood, at least conceptually, what the consequences were. Now they have to feel it.

But what sucks the mostest is that I have to feel it, too.

We were so looking forward to this weekend. And me, most of all.

It's our annual hunt and peck for our Christmas Tree, and we'd already planned on trekking our happy little tushies all the way out to Half Moon Bay at the crack of dawn tomorrow to try and beat the traffic. We were going to pull out and put up all of our Christmas decorations, and even watch a Christmas movie for movie night. I bought some puff pastry so that we could make some cranberry and cinnamon cookies and have hot chocolate while we worked on our popcorn strings. I just love the holidays. It makes my whole soul smile. The smells, the movies, the non-stop Christmas music on the radio. The way people go out of their way to do extra little things for perfect strangers (e.g., Amy paid for the toll of the old gentleman behind us going over the bridge today). The way you suddenly feel a part of something bigger, something real, something more.

But now what? NOW. WHAT. How much of tomorrow should we withhold? It's a once a year event, for crissakes. Do we stay? Do we go? And are they gonna learn their lesson either way?

Of all weeks for them to pull this. Seriously. It makes me just wanna wax their underarms! You know, if they had any hair there. And if it wasn't illegal to torture your children.
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