Our Addiction

I don't know about you, but at our house we are totally enthralled with the Olympics. We seriously can't get enough.


On Sunday night at 11:00, Andrew and I started watching the Olympic coverage we had recorded from earlier in the evening. Initially, we planned to fast-forward through it and just watch the highlights, but as it turned out we got sucked into watching every event.

Finally, after hours of watching, we got to the coverage of the mens 4x100m free relay. What an incredible race! We were sucked into the drama of the moment. The French's trash talking. Michael Phelps quest for gold. We were riveted. As the race started, we were cheering. As the race continued, we were on our feet yelling. When the US won the race we were jumping up and down screaming. It was after 2:00 in the morning, and Andrew and I were jumping around our family room screaming. It was a great Olympic moment for the US and for us.

Last night, my kids were begging me to stay up and watch some of the Olympics for awhile. When it was time for Michael Phelps to race the butterfly I explained to my kids that no one had ever won ten Olympic gold medals and that I was letting them stay up so they could witness history being made. (I had to have some excuse for letting them stay up and watch TV that late.) Anyway, as Michael Phelps swam, my kids were screaming and cheering him on. They were all yelling "Go Michaelphelps" as if it were one word. When he won, they were ecstatic.

Later, as I was putting the kids to bed, Abby said, "I'm so glad we got to watch the Olympics tonight. Now, when we have kids, and they ask, 'What's special about you?', we can say, 'Well millions of things, but one is that we got to see Michael Phelps win his tenth gold medal.'"

So yes, we are all sleep deprived but we are loving the Olympics - and by parking our kids in front of the TV, we are apparently giving them historically significant experiences and making them more "special." Go USA.