I've been running around with The Girls over the past couple of days ... we had a rental car last night (for The Wife to make it to an early morning meeting across town), so I snagged The Girls to go to their Friday (hard-sell) Dojo classes, then we ran some errands, fed them (by the way, that "Cabo" sandwich at Quizno's rocks), ran some more errands, found a miraculous parking spot, came home and crashed ... this morning The Wife left early and The Girls and I ran some more errands (you don't really want the details, do you?), got their hair cut, and then hopped the El up to Dojo, fed them, ran a couple of more errands, then hopped the El back home. Exciting couple of days, eh?
I will be very happy when Daughter #2 gets "kicked upstairs" to the "Karate Kids" (6-12 year-olds) from "Ninja Turtles" (3-5 year-olds), as at the moment, the only two "slots" in the week when both Girls have classes are Friday night and Saturday noon, which is, admittedly, a pretty intensive turn-around for them. They're supposed to take 2 classes a week, so if we only do one or the other (or miss both), they start lagging behind on promotions. When #2 moves up to Kids1 we'll have four or five "slots" where both classes are in the same two-hour period, which will mean we'll be better able to get in two classes a week. We lucked out on Daughter #1 getting her "permission to promote" stripe today ... officially we're supposed to have in her "Job List" (a thing that tracks here home/school, etc. performance) and her "Black Belt Log" (which sort of tracks her non-Dojo workouts/practices) in by the 20th of the month, and frankly, I keep getting "blindsided" by the date and #1 keeps forgtting to remind me. We brought the paperwork with us on Friday night (the 21st) and the instructor was going to give her the stripe, but they both forgot, today we had the main kids' teacher, and she had to do this whole song-and-dance for him about how we'd brought it in etc., but he did put that on her belt. We may have to go up for one of her classes mid-week (since we're going to be out of town next weekend), just to make sure she'll have enough classes done for the next promotion, which will be to a new belt ("high blue", which is just under purple, which is the last before the three degrees of brown, which, of course, come before the black belt).
I'm still hoping that #1 will get her black belt while still in the Kids program ... I think they "kick them upstairs" to "Teen Warriors" when they turn 13 ... but if she keeps at it, makes all her classes, and gets her promotions "on time" (about a new stripe every 2 months), she'll have her first Brown Belt just before her 11th birthday, and should become eligible fo her Black Belt a few months after her 12th birthday, meaning that she could still get the Kids' Black Belt (there have been a couple of gals who have managed that while we've been there ... one getting her black belt as young as 11!). I suspect that, if we can keep her focused, Daugther #2 should be a shoo-in for getting her Black Belt while in the Kids program, as she's already 2 belts beyond what her Sis did in Ninja Turtles and will be "hitting the ground running" when they move her up to the White Belt class.