A New Belt For Ryan

Ryan has been taking Karate this year, and we have really enjoyed it. We have been practicing his moves for his yellow belt test for months. The big day was Saturday. What do you know, but Ryan came down with a fever of 104 degrees on Thursday. He was sick all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and he wasn't eating or drinking anything. I pretty much forced him to drink some water on Saturday morning and I doped him up on Ibuprofen, because he still wanted to test and I thought he was going to keel over. For his test, he had to show his Sensai that he knew certain moves and the history and protocol of Karate. Then, after the test, they were all required to spar with another student. Taking instruction

Ryan before his test

Testing for his yellow belt

He was so happy to put it on!

I took some video of his sparring match, but it was too long and I wasn't able to upload it. So let me just tell ya how this mommy feels watching her 6 year old sweetheart fighting an older Karate student... a blue belt, nonetheless. I was a total wreck. Ryan's Sensei said he tries to match up all the kids by size and belt color, but it's not always possible. So Ryan fought a blue belt (some kid that won four more rounds) and I was so nervous. Ryan did SO well though. Not only did he have a temperature of 104, but he had to fight a blue belt, and he scored two points on the kid! Ryan really held his own, but the blue belt won the match 3-2. At one point, Ryan got knocked on his rear, but he jumped right up and went at it again. I was freaking out but I knew Shan would have been so proud. Phew. I was so happy when it was over and we went out to eat to celebrate. Way to go Ryan.