The Little Chipmunk

Good morning! I hope all is well. It has busy around the Dungan household. This week the twerplets all started after school activities at GSX, a local gym specializing in children. Graham and Sydney have joined the ranks of the Tae Kwon Do-ers and Ainsley is now an official tumbler. For Ainsley, this is nothing more that an officially sanctioned version of what she does on an hourly basis. She continues to be fearless, always challenging herself to do anything that her older brother and sister can do - only better. She is clearly the third child. I generally don't like to compare one child to another but I am so completely amazed by what I believe is the 3rd child phenomenon that I will break the rules. Even given the age difference I would consider her an equal to her brother and sister in dexterity. If I compared her to them when they were her age there would be no comparison. She is far more advanced than they could have ever dreamed to be. She is also more stubborn.

Perhaps, that is the reason for her success.

Many people doubt her prowess. Oddly enough, when we were signing her up for a class she was put in a group of older children. This was mostly due to the fact that we were trying to schedule all of the twerplets classes together. None the less, one of the trainers was rather snooty, "We don't allow younger children in this class. They are not able to keep up." After much discussion and a few disrespectful leers in our direction, Ainsley joined the older class. It turns out that the rude trainer was right. They weren't on the same level.

Ainsley was much more advanced. The rude trainer will never know. Thankfully, she was teaching another class anyway.

Graham and Syndey are enjoying Tae Kwon Do. Lynley and I chose for them to participate in this activity less for the physical exercise and more for the building of their self esteem. Sydney continues to have the habit of quitting and refusing to do anything she can't do perfectly on the first try. This environment is not conducive to that. Furthermore, she is challenged by her little brother. She is learning that she has to work hard. She needs that. I like it.

Graham is doing well, too. In fact, I think this may be best for him. This will be a big confidence boost for him. He is already learning that he can be very good at it. His improvement has been amazing. You can literally see his confidence grow by the minute.

So, after having two kids in Tae Kwon Do you would have to expect an injury. And we got one! But, it did not come from those that were practicing martial arts. No, it was from the expert tumbler who accidentally took a tumble down the stairs while trying to slide down the railing with a cup in her hand. She fell on her cheek and, apparently took a pretty good bite out of the inside of her left cheek. She now has a pretty good ulcer on the inside of her mouth that will get worse before in gets better. Her cheek has grown to about 4 times the size of normal. From the left side she looks like a chipmunk still storing nuts.

I always knew she was full of them anyway.

Well, there you go, a twerp update.

My purpose is energetic.