Jake's First Karate Lesson

Jake HATES change. I mean he really, really hates it. He hates anything even relatively new. When spring comes he'll pitch a fit when we try to put him in summer sandals instead of his regular shoes. Then come fall he'll pitch another fit when we make him stop wearing sandals. The same happens with his winter/fall/spring coats. He hates trying anything new but usually ends up loving it once we force the issue. He just absolutely HATES change.

Today we took him to what was supposed to be his first karate lesson. He was not happy about it before we left the house but we told him that Hannah could take the first class with him and he seemed to be relatively fine with that. We were told to get there 30 minutes early so they could fit him for his karate outfit and we could fill out some paperwork. Here comes the dislike of change part. They made him wear a special outfit. Oh dear God the world was out to get him. At least that's what you would have thought if you could hear him screaming. And screaming. And screaming. With a little shrieking thrown in for good measure. It took a lot of coaxing, and a little forcing, and we finally got him into the outfit. He curled himself into a ball and refused to even look at himself in the mirror. Finally we got him to calm down and agreed that he could sit outside of the classroom and watch the class. He seemed to enjoy watching the kids and he says he's willing to give it a try next week. We'll see how that goes.

The thing I really like about this place is the emphasis that they place on general respect. When the instructor, Tim, greets Jake he makes him shake his hand and look him in the eye. He has Jake answer him with "yes, Sir" and "no, Sir" but he doesn't do it in a mean way. He's fantastic with the little kids. I think this will be so great for Jake if we can just get him to participate. They are so accommodating there and Tim has offered to give Jake a few free private lessons to get him more comfortable with the whole situation before we sign up for lessons. He even let us bring home one of the outfits today even though we haven't purchased it yet so that Jake can get used to the uniform. They are just really, really fantastic people over there and I hope that we can get Jake involved.

In related news, it's a good thing we signed Hannah up for sewing classes because apparently we will need to sew patches on Jake's uniform.