my little olympian

Julianna thinks that the Olympics are great. Anyone who know me knows I love the Olympics. I would love to go to the Olympics some day, I love to watch the Olympics..in fact I am taping about 15 hours of it a day.

That being said, I am feeling a little bit guilty, since I feel like possibility the Chinese Olympians and their families are being exploited/abused in order to perform for the greater glory of China, and therefore I end up feeling a little sorry for them when they lose. Especially the ones that are like 12 years old (I know, all of the gymnasts are supposed to be 16, but you look at the pictures and tell me what you think!!)

However, guilt aside...I love the Olympics. Especially the water sports. Much more so than the feats of strength or the shooting. I am gaining a new appreciation for cycling since it has been so explained to me by my husband, and because my daughter LOVES the bicycles. Yesterday as we watched the women race we all had to wear towels/blankets/etc on our heads as our "helmets" which Julianna provided for all of us.

We were also watching the swimming, mostly for me, and she say, "Momma, I wanna do the swimming" after which to put herself horizontal over papa's knees and started swimming. We always say, "do your kicks and scoops" to her as she swims in the pool, so she starts chanting, "kick, kick, scoop, scoop." as she kicks and waves her little arms and legs. It was so darn cute.

For anyone who is living under a rock and doesn't know, the Americans won the 4x100 relay putting Micheal Fellps in line to beat the 7-gold in one record of Mark Spitz (both intentionally misspelled to avoid stray hits). Since I love the relay (so fast) and enjoy water sports this was ideal for me. I tried to stay up and watch it live last night, but just couldn't make it. So, I had to watch it first thing this morning. I was cheering and yelling and Julianna was standing next to me cheering too (although I think just on general noise-making principle vs. actual excitement about the swimming). However, this excitement turned genuine during the metal ceremony. She says to me..."Momma, why the guys all standing with flowers?" ...to which I explained that they were going to get Olympic metals, and that the Americans were going to get the gold, the French the silver and the Australians the Bronze, but that Gold was best, and the Americans were getting this because they won the swimming. She got a very serious look on her face and watched the ceremony of metals very carefully and then said, "Momma, I want me a shiny, gold metal necklace like the man!"

Oh...be still my heart....if I ever go to the Olympics and watch someone I know perform I might lose my mind with excitement. If we can't win a medal, maybe Julianna and I will go to the Olympics some day and watch the swimming and buy ourselves something shiny and gold.