An ingrown hair on an elephant's butt

I was so very proud of my kiddos this weekend. They did extremely well at the tae kwon do tournament. In fact, in many ways, this was the best that I had ever seen them. Both came back from significant deficits to win their matches. On the way home, I was absolutely stoked.

"You all did so great today!"

"I have never been more proud."

"Dudely (Graham) you did such an incredible job. I was so proud of the way that you fought your gold medal match."

Graham beat a little boy, 29 -27, overcoming a 4 point deficit in the last 30 seconds. He had fought a boy whom he had lost to by 11-1 at Regionals last year. It was a huge accomplishment for him. In all honesty, the boy he was sparring had better technique but, today, Graham had better instinct. In the second round a shot sent him flying backwards and also had the unfortunate effect of slamming his head onto the ground. This stunned him and allowed his opponent to take the lead. Somehow Graham was able to regain his composure. For those of you interested in seeing a 6 year old gold medal match, I have posted it on YouTube below.



Sydney's day was good as well. After dominating in forms and receiving a gold medal, she was on to sparring. You never know what you are going to get in sparring and, unfortunately, Sydney drew a bevy of girls that all towered above her. In fact, the closest to her size towered over her by about 6 inches. Height is a huge advantage in Tae Kwon Do and Sydney would be fighting from a huge deficit and and leaping over an equally massive mental hurdle. Sydney fought hard to make it to finals. In her first match she even overcame a 5-0 deficit to win the match. This was huge for Sydney and I was so proud of her for not giving up against her massive opponents and maintaining control of her mental state. Normally she would have beaten herself before the match had even begun. Her gold medal match was against the jolly green giant, a black girl who towered over her by about a foot. Sydney stayed in the match and kept it close but was simply unable to get adequate scoring in. Every time she got in a scorable distance she was already well within her opponents reach. In the end, she would get the silver medal but we were incredibly proud. She did well for sparring such a giant and I think she learned a lot. Over the next few months we will be honing the skills necessary to overcome such height deficits. Essentially, she just needs to become faster and anticipate more. This is what I had to say to her on the way home:

"I am so incredibly proud of you, you little dude-ette!"

Sydney: "Thank you, Daddy."

Graham: "Dad, you just called her an ingrown hair on an elephant's butt."

For the life of me, I don't know where the boy learned it., but, I googled it and found it in the urban dictionary:

dudet: an ingrown hair on an elephant's butt.

I was unable to verify this in Webster's dictionary or another credible source but it is something I will never forget. And, for the time being, I guess I will have to find another term to describe my daughter's supreme dude-liness on the mat.

Oh, what a weekend.

Well, I had best be off. The kiddos are out of school for Columbus Day and any work that I am going to get accomplished must come this morning.

I had better get my nose to the grindstone so that I can afford to focus on my purpose.