The Imperfect Community

[Petulant Pixie]

We had our town fair this weekend--where all the shops and businesses in the town put up booths to advertise themselves and give away trinkets. Then they have a parade.

The kids were involved for karate. There was a little demo team and they did their thing on Saturday morning. Alex isn't in the XMA (extreme martial arts) demo team yet, he should take a tumbling class to learn the cartwheels and stuff. But, really, that's just not his thing. The other kids on the demo team he WAS on though...well, there was a 14 year old girl (who vowed to be on the XMA team next year) and then the next oldest kid was Katie, lol. After her, they were all like 5&6. So, they were little kids and then Alex and this girl. Poor Alex. The XMA team was super-flashy, doing all sorts of skits in their cool black uniforms and he felt like a fool with the little kids. The instructor that "coached" this team really raved over what a help he and this one older girl were. But, he won't be doing it again, he vowed to that, too.

But, Katie was in rare form. The XMA thing IS her thing. She totally loves all that stuff (she'll need a tumbling class for the cartwheels and flips, too). Before the show, she was talking with her favorite teenager--a blond girl, second degree black belt, somewhere around 15-17 years old (Miss V). Katie's always hanging around Miss V.

Anyway, Miss V was giving Katie a pep talk, and she said, "Yeah, Katie go out there and show them what you're made of!"

And Katie said, "Yeah, muscle and steel!"

Everyone around just about lost it, but Katie rolled up her sleeve and made a muscle. It is impressive. Miss V was going on and on about it (genuinely) and I commented about how Katie's like whats-her-name from Terminator 2 and everyone agreed. The child is cut.

Later that day, Liz rode the carousel. She'd been watching it and pointing at it eagerly all day. Once she was on it though, she figured it was a better thing to view from a distance. She didn't cry, but she didn't hold onto the pole either (so I had to support her on the horse the whole time) and she had her worried expression on.

The next day, Sunday, they were in the parade. Mike walked in the parade with them. The thing goes right past where we live, so I took Liz in her stroller to walk. They did a fine job and thankfully were early enough in the parade, so Liz and I could just go home after them.

Mike told me though that Katie had come up to him before the parade and was talking about this boy--Michael S___. Michael S is a brand new black belt and he's around Alex's age, somewhere between 10-13, I'd guess. Anyway, sweet kid, very athletic (during the demo, he did this cool board break where he ran up to a team member who had his arms crossed over his chest, stepped on the guy's crossed arms for leverage--so he's now up in the air about 6 feet--and broke a board that someone was holding while standing on someone else's shoulder. That's the stuff they do in XMA and it's just not Alex. But, it's Katie for sure).

Anyway, Katie came running to Mike and says, "I think Michael S has a crush on me!"

Mike was standing with a couple of other dads and he said they were all doing all they could to keep from laughing. So he asked her why she thought this and she replied that he always says hi to her, he runs up to her to say hi and just now he put his arm around her shoulder! He said she was just giggling and blushing the whole time telling him this. Awww, sweet Katie! I told her later that I didn't think it was a crush, she's still too young for that. I said that if she were 10, I'd definately think he had a crush on her, but not yet. She looked me dead on and said that 10 is only three years away! So, I think the direction of the crush runs in the other direction. I hope she doesn't get her heart broken!

[DietCokeHead]

XMA sounds cool!

How are the kids liking their new schools?