Pulling and Standing

Loving the mobility

With lots of practice, Mateo is really enjoying the freedom of movement and touching everything, including clearing tables and counter tops in one swipe!

Always smiling!

We don't crawl with our knees, we use our feet. 

We touch everything!

And crawl back...

Whale watch

 

Its becoming a summer ritual, and if I can help it, we will be turning into the annual family must do no acceptations summer trip. Yip whale watching.  My most favourite animal, followed closely by the elephant.

 

Packed furiously the night before, snacks, change of clothes, binoculars, food etc etc and the kitchen sink.  Woke up early, too early, got everyone up and we were on our way.   Followed the Garmin, got lost, and arrived 5 minutes before the boat leaves...hugest sigh of relief!

 

 

 

Mateo's first boat trip

Everyone down under relaxing and catching up.  Its a long trip to the whales

Josh all ready for the action

The boys all excited!

During the ride the naturalist gives us a talk all about whales and why they are as awesome as they are!  In the front they set up a table where people can touch and feel.   Above Robby is holding the baleen of a humpback, the random little girl is photo bombing our pic ;-)

Mateo and I ready for action...you need to be able to walk from side to side to watch the whales and be hands free t hold onto the boat.  The carrier worked well.  Mateo loved it. 

The trip was so long Jaime passed out.  Laura looking a little green.  The water was very choppy.  We were all feeling green!

After a really long time all we could see was fog, and still waters:

Then we saw them, and they were all over, everywhere you looked you saw tails, mouths, flute, air from the blow hole...it was again an amazing absolutely amazing trip!

 

Truly amazing! 

 

We then enjoyed the trip home reliving every moment!  Once we landed on shore we all enjoyed a delicious fishy lunch!

Lowes day

Special quality time with dad!

 

Pulling himself up to standing position

Nasty situation

So something happened at karate.  I am still in 2 minds on what to do about it.  Ok let me fill you in and hopefully this process will help me too.

It was a regular Tuesday evening Karate class.  the boys (ages 5-7) were following the class and as boys are, messing around occasionally.  The moms were all watching/chatting while the class was going on.  Nothing unusual.  All of a sudden the Sensei called Jaime aside, told him to take his obi (belt) off, fold it and place it in his bag, confiscating it.  While this was going on, I was asking each mom what had happened.  Not one mom could tell me, there were at least 6 moms there.  No one had seen a thing.  Sensei then told Jaime to sit with me cause he is no longer part of his class. 

Needless to say, Jaime was distraught.  he ran to me in tears, crying so badly he could hardly breath.
When I asked him what he had done, he could not tell me.  kept saying he didn't know, he didn't know.

The Sensai then proceeds to walk up to Jaime.  At this point even I was scared.  He asked Jaime to stand in front of him.  Jaime is still crying hysterically.  I stand with him.  He then reams Jaime out in front of everyone.  So Jaime pushed someone.  Ok.
 
I cannot explain to you how scary this whole event was.  It sounds so tame, but the Sensei was so stern and his words so hard and harsh that I walked away with my heart pounding, and my stomach in a knot.   After class, every single mom came to check up on Jaime.  Apologized for the situation and hoped that we would return on Friday. I even had 2 moms checking in on Jaime that night. That alone says something.

Now I know and I understand that the Sensei was teaching Jaime a lesson.  That pushing is absolutely not acceptable in his class or ever.  However, not one of the moms had seen it, the boy he pushed did not even flinch, react or after class, explain to his mom what happened, so what type of a push was it?  was it out of jest? anger? ok ok a push is a push but did it really need discipline that extreme?
To crush his spirit so badly after taking almost a year to build him up?  believe me, I am on his side with the no pushing rule, Jaime is not allowed to watch TV till he apologises to Sensei on Friday, But I am definitely finding it hard to understand the calling out of class, the confiscating of the belt and the lecturing that went on, especially if it was boys being boys and they were messing around and they only 5yrs old! And why was Jaime the only one called on it.

One half of me just wants to rip his heart out, the other half is saying I need to support the lesson taught.  maybe I can do both.   Seriously, how do you protect your child from these situations, and protect I mean how do you protect his spirit, his confidence without mollycoddling him? 
No one said this was easy. 

So that was Tuesday.  For the next two days Jaime was extremely sensitive.  Any instruction would lead to tears.  He was even crying in his sleep.  Each day we tried doing things that he enjoyed, that made him smile, and proud of what he could do.  Besides Tuesday night, we did not mention the Sensei and what happened again.  We needed to teach Jaime that what he did was wrong, but that no one ha the power to destroy who you are besides yourself.  We will never be able to protect him from people all of the time, he needs to have the tools to protect himself. 

On Friday I made a concerted effort to go to karate, we were going to sort this out.  As soon as we arrive Sensei greats Jaime in a manner that was way over friendly.  Asking how he was and how he as enjoying summer. Jaime apologized :-) We then spent the next 10 min looking for a spot for the class (the venue is also used as a function venue).  The karate class was filled with jokes, fun and laughter.    Not only did Jaime get his belt back but he laughed and smiled and really enjoyed the class.  So my fear of his confidence been taken, was again just a fear.  he rose above it. 

Well to date, I still have not spoken to the Sensei, and I don't think I need to.  I think he realized he was over the top and corrected the situation with his students in his own way.  Jaime has moved on, demonstrated that he is much stronger and ready for anything!

Swimming update

Just 3 weeks in and look how well he is doing:

 

They now working on stroke technique.  Jaime is really enjoying swimming.

Post Card from home

Surprise mail:

 

I've made copies of this and handed it out randomly whenever I get the "blank" stare tee hee

Day at the zoo

 The coolest thing about having kids is that you can go to the same place time and time again and discover something new!  One of our favourite places is the Buttonwood zoo.  Its a tiny local zoo, but add the knowledge learnt from Wild Kratts and you have a wild morning at the zoo.

 

Are these not the cutest feet you have ever seen???