Extracurricular ADD

As much as Jeremy and I enjoyed watching Natalia kick butt (or not) in her karate uniform, we have decided to give that up for a while. When I say "we" I guess I really mean "she". Jeremy and I bailed on the karate months ago. She was dragging her feet and said she is too tired after being at school all day. I agree. She really is exhausted after a full day of school, plus homework, plus regaling us with Tales from the First Grade. It's not like Kenpo was an exercise in relaxation techniques. Besides, we can always revisit it later, or not. 

I started thinking about all the things Natalia has tried. In the beginning I thought that we would try stuff until she found her niche, then we could label her. I love to have things neatly categorized - and that includes my child. She doesn't see that necessity, just like she doesn't feel things need to match. That is the Jeremy genetic code coming out in her. I thought by now we would figure out whether she is a ballerina, an artist, a gymnast, a ninja, or an ice skating princess. Nope. Please check the box marked "none of the above". What I do I have? I have a sweet little girl who isn't afraid to try out new things, then move on to something new. We'll label her as "well rounded", since I love those labels.

I have to admit that secretly I am waiting for her to find her inner child prodigy. Maybe by trying out everything she will find the one thing she is passionate about and can totally excel at that. I know in my heart that she won't. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not disappointed. It's just funny to watch her figure things out instead of me figuring them out for her. You will never see me on the sidelines being a "pageant mom", dancing her routine in the audience and blasting her with lipgloss and hairspray. Well, maybe the lipgloss and hairspray, but not dancing in the audience. You get what I mean.

What she is great at is being excited about trying new things and speaking up when they are no longer fun. What is the point of extracurricular stuff if it isn't fun? We do have the rule that once started, she has to stick with it until the session is over. Part of that is a lesson in perseverance, the other part is that mommy and daddy just dished out a hundred dollars to watch you ice skate in a helmet. You owe us five weeks of pictures.


What baffles me is where does she get this from? Just kidding. I already know that answer. I wear a lot of hobby hats too: art, crafts, vacation planner, party planner, fund raiser, ER social activities organizer, pole dancer (it was a very PG rated class, not an occupation), kenpo goddess, runner. None of which I am very good at, but it's fun to try. I want Natalia to have a fun and exciting childhood, even if that means she has extracurricular ADD. I can honestly say that all I really care about is her happiness and enough picture memories to wipe out our computer's motherboard.