Olympic Love
So the Olympics are over. Did you watch?  My favorite part was watching Boo become the Ultimate Olympic Fan. These are not the first Olympics he’s seen, but these are the first that he’s really gotten into and understood. Four years ago Boo, Pumpkin Girl, Becca and I watched them live during the day from our living room in Korea. None of them were really all that interested, but our house wasn’t that big, so they all stayed and watched with me.
Two years ago we were back in the States and we had to watch the Winter Olympics during prime time. They aired way past our children’s bedtime and we didn’t bother recording them.
But this year something was different for Boo. Our studies of ancient Greece weren’t too long ago and he could still tell me the origin of the marathon, along with some key points about the original Olympic games. We watched the opening ceremonies as a family and he begged us to record the end for him when he went to bed. For the rest of the games, it became standard for him to watch for a while, then for us to record. He’d watch the tape during his free time in the day.
He became instantly enamored of swimming and was equally fascinated by diving. He made himself a flag that he used to cheer on Team USA. He cheered whole heartedly and a bit too loudly for Michael Phelps and just about fell off the couch during that amazing 4x100m relay. He was disappointed over the US women’s gymnastics team silver medal, couldn’t decide if he like Nastia or Shawn better (he eventually decided on Shawn) and was ready to lead an official protest over Shawn’s loss of the floor exercise gold medal. By the end of the first week, he’d worn out his flag.
He was actually pretty bummed out about his flag, but I pointed out that there was a whole other week left and he could make a whole new flag for the second week.
He was less enthused over track and field. He said it was too hard to keep track of everybody. Fortunately he was very into volleyball and diving, so he had plenty of opportunities to wave his flag.
He can tell you all about the “Disappearing Debbie”, why the French should keep their mouths shut, and what it means to “stick the landing.”
We were at the store the other day and Boo saw a magazine with Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson on the cover. He was so excited to see them and referred to them by name. To his joy, Michael Phelps was in a smaller picture on the cover, too! I was about to buy the magazine for him when I realized it was an “Us” magazine and was also full of other celebrity news that would have been inappropriate. I’ll have to keep my eye out for some kind of special Olympic wrap-up magazine. If anyone sees one- let me know!
I really enjoyed Boo enjoying the Olympics. His enthusiasm was contagious and he was so cute waving his flag and chanting “USA, USA.” Bip even got involved when Pumpkin Girl made him his own cheering flag and he would chant, “Go SA!”
So I asked him if he’s looking forward to the Winter Olympics in 2010. “Oh yeah!” he said. “Who’s not? And I’ve already got my flag!”
It sounds like there was a similar scene here at our house. We are going to be dealing with some serious withdrawals this evening. Michael Phelps was a hero around here too and there were so many protests about the age of the Chinese gymnasts. We checked the medal count every day. One of our surprise favorites was Bryan Clay, the decathlete. I didn’t think my kids would be that interested, but they were.