Monday, November 21, 2016

The Tiny Ninjas Melt My Heart

There are plenty of moments where you know you have failed as a parent (Hello, four year old daughter who still crawls into my bed in the middle of the night!  Or completely losing my sh*t if my children attempt to wake me before 8 on a Saturday morning.)  But every once in a while, something happens that reminds me that we not an epic failures as parents.

That was this last Saturday.

Our kids had entered a local Ninja competition at the Maine Warrior Gym.  Owen has become obsessed with the show and when we discovered a gym that was a "mere" 40 minute drive away, we have been taking them at every opportunity.  It turns out that both of our kids are naturally athletic and strangely perfectionist about obstacles.  I've watched both of my kids practice doing the rings for nearly 30 minutes straight until they have proven they can do them flawlessly.  Being the somewhat Tiger parents that we are, we had taken them to the gym once a week for nearly six weeks leading up to the competition, on top of the impromptu training sessions at the local playgrounds, doorways, staircases, and whatever climbing opportunity the kids could find.  And despite the fact the coaches at the gym loved our kids and thought they were really good, we were naturally worried.  What would happen if our kids didn't win something that they had been practicing for months?  Or even worse, what would happen if one of them placed but the other didn't?  You have to remember that our kids take after us and are naturally tiny.  They looked even tinier competing against the other kids, even in their 5-6 year old age bracket.  (I swear, there was this one kid who looked like he was 8.)  Anduin especially looked tiny since she's actually only 4 and technically, she's not supposed to be on the equipment by herself.

Then it happened.  Anduin placed third among the girls.  Owen placed fourth and missed the podium by a tiny .4 seconds among the boys.  Niles and I braced ourselves for tears from Owen as he watched his sister stand on the podium and receive her bronze medal.

Instead, Owen cheered extremely loudly for his sister and gave her a huge hug.

*heart melting*

And then Anduin removed her medal, put it around Owen's neck, and said, "Owen, I want to share my medal with you since you helped me train."

*heart in a tiny puddle*

Yes!  We did something right.

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