You have learned well, grasshopper

Day 3 of Daddy is Gone...no one has been maimed or killed yet....

Today was Monkey Man's test for his orange belt. What typically happens is that all of the people testing meet at one central location (this is a chain of studios that he goes to) and they test en masse in front of the Grand Master. When he tested for his yellow belt, he was pretty nervous at first and by the end he said it really wasn't that bad and that the Grand Master was "pretty cool." He was disappointed that he didn't get to spar with the Grand Master to get his yellow belt, and it's kind of a shame because I totally would have put fifty on Monkey Man.

In order to test, you have to fill out an application along with writing a letter of appreciation to your parents (basically saying what the parents do for them that they appreciate and the things they will do in return like do a good job in school, not burn or pillage any villages, stuff like that). You also have to answer a series of questions in writing. This whole process completely chaps my ass, mostly because other than writing a few words here and there, Mr. Diva isn't writing complete sentences yet and if we don't start the process a week before his test, I end up having him dictate the answers and the appreciation letter to me. Since we only had two days to prepare, you can imagine what we ended up doing, and let's just say that Mr. Diva doesn't exactly have writers' cramp.

We sat down last night and started working on it - I got tired so we picked back up this morning and finished it off with the letter of appreciation. I read to him out of the manual that he was supposed to answer two questions within the letter:

*What have my parents done for me, including martial arts training?
*What would I like to do for my parents?

So he dictated a really cute letter and I put it in the envelope with the application to take to the test.

He went through the Ha-Dan form flawlessly - which is a 20-step process of moves and hand blocks that until about a week ago he was still floundering with. Seriously, it was almost too much for me to watch because we would get to the point that I almost had to be restrained not to get up and run out onto the floor and fix his feet. But a week ago, it miraculously clicked and he has been cranking out the Ha-Dan form over and over with no mistakes. Amazing, because I figured he'd be the only student in the history of the school to have had his yellow belt for 20 years. But we dodged that bullet.

After all the sparring and combinations were done, the Grand Master gave a nice little speech like he always does about what it means to be a good martial artist and about respecting your parents, doing well in school, and a few other things. He is a very serious looking guy - one of the grandparents sitting next to me asked at one point if the Grand Master ever smiled, because in all the times he'd seen the man he'd never seen as much as a twinkle in his eye.

"So tell me students, why do you write letters of appreciation to your parents?" asked the Grand Master.

And the only person in the room that raised his hand was Monkey Man. I think I peed a little.

"Stand up, young man, and tell me why," he said sternly.

"We write the letter to our mommies and daddies so we can tell them that we appreciate them letting us learn to be really good at karate!" said Monkey Man proudly.

Well, the Grand Master threw his head back and laughed, startling everyone around him. Then the laughter grew and within seconds the whole room was laughing. Grand Master wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes and told Monkey Man that he'd answered well. Monkey Man just beamed.

"That's some boy you got there," said the grandparent next to me.

"Yup, that's my son. The suck-up." But damn, I was proud. I've taught him well.