Real success is not immediate

Today is a holiday. You may not know that but the kiddos are fully aware that this is a day home from school. It is also my turn to stay home with the gaggle of twerps while Lynley works. For some reason, us grown up twerps don't get the same holidays that the kiddos get in school. It doesn't make sense. I don't know whether I am arguing for a day off from work or a day back at school but it just doesn't seem right. The holidays should be the same. Now, Lynley feels guilty for not being home. I feel guilty for not being at work. Thankfully, I suppose, the kids don't care about how either of us feel.

I do have some exciting news. It seems as though Tae Kwon Do is really paying off. Sydney can ride a bike without training wheels. Do you see the connection? No. Well, the whole reason that we started Sydney with Tae Kwon Do was to get over her embarrassment of not being a professional at anything the first time she tried it. Instead, Sydney became a professional quitter. If she could not do it perfectly she refused to do it ever again. She was missing a very, very valuable lesson in life. She had no concept that if she tried really hard she would eventually learn. In her eyes, she had no successes. We were hopeful that the discipline of Tae Kwon Do would get her through this.

Well, over the last week or so we have been watching Sydney sneak out to the back yard to ride her bike. She would mount it at the top of the hill by the swimming pool and ride it down to the swing set - with no training wheels and no help. At first she failed - a lot. She fell over nearly every time. But after a few days of practice she was successfully riding down the hill. This was a huge milestone. Previous to this, with the exception of one time over at a friends house, she had refused to ride her bike in over a year.

Well, yesterday she finally decided it was time to take the bike out onto the pavement and give the sidewalk a shot. Within minutes she was safely riding up and down the block.

She did it! All by herself.

At dinner she said. "Wow, I never knew that if I tried real hard I could do it. I never did that before. I am so proud of myself. "

That is one of the great successes in life. I could not be prouder either.

It seems Sydney is learning purpose as well.