Imperial Adventure

I'm addicted to watching the Olympics. This is the first Olympics since our family acquired TiVo and I have to say it has made a huge difference in how much Olympics we actually watch. Fan-tas-tic.

The Olympic moments you see on T.V. are genuinely memorable, but it's the Olympic moments at home that are worth watching. Following the Usain Bolt win our two little boys have been expertly lining themselves up against a wall and sprinting around the house at the words, Ready-Set-GO! (I personally love this activity because it doesn't involve any toys with small pieces, and it wears them out.)


With every Phelps race Cooper simultaneously readies himself on the ottoman for a dive. Then jumps in the water -- actually onto the carpet -- gets on his belly and mimics the stroke. It cracks me up to watch his little body squirming across the floor. Is this how Olympians are born? Mason gets in on the action by wearing his swim goggles around the house and pulling his T-shirt up over his face but around his head (he's either pretending to be a bride or it's a make-shift swim cap).

There's moments of heartbreak, too. After watching women's gymnastics, Cooper mustered the courage to run a length of brick wall. That didn't end well and introduced him to the reason balance beam is not part of men's gymnastics. It also resulted in the "cold" medal -- mint chip ice cream sandwiches.


Overall the Olympics have represented a huge opportunity to learn about sports and culture. After hearing so many disappointing athlete's stories end with, "She's had a touch of a stomach bug this week." we decided to take the kids out for Chinese food. My little Beijing boys bellied up and wolfed down enormous quantities of wonton soup, sesame chicken, and rice. This restaurant was also the first they had been to that had live lobsters and crabs in an aquarium. Cooper was horrified to hear the fate of the creatures. Mason just kept shouting, "Bugs!" That's not really an exclamation any restaurant patron wants to hear.