Hyrum and the Olympics

Hyrum was born during the midst of the 2014 Winter Olympics. I’m pretty sure that means he’ll be an Olympic athlete. 

It was heart-warming to watch the Winter Games with a brand new baby. There’s something special about the Olympics. It’s the thrill of the competition, the adrenaline at the start of a race, the love of country, the heart that makes one get up after a fall, the hope that the next run will be better, the coming together of all peoples, and the celebration of life…which pretty much sums up newborns.

 After the marathon that is child-birth I felt like I deserved a gold medal, but what I got was infinitely more special, my bouncing baby boy. That being said, it’s not like I finished the race in the delivery room. Oh no, the first few weeks afterwards are the ultimate test of endurance, and the Olympics were on through it all to motivate us to go for gold, or at least survive the sleep deprivation and new-mom obstacles.

Maybe he'll be a hockey player

When it was time to nurse, my mom would pull up the Olympics and say, “Okay, what do you want to watch?” There were so many good choices, and I was content to let Hyrum take his time nursing when I was happily watching figure skating or the luge or the snowboarder’s half-pipe or the downhill skiing and the list goes on and on.  Luckily the Olympics are on pretty much 24/7 so those who were up with the baby during the wee hours of the morning had something to do, and were excited to be awake…maybe too excited. Early one morning at about 2 am I woke up to go to the bathroom and found Joseph still up. There was our baby snoozing in his arms and it looked like the baby had been sleeping for quite some time. When I asked Joseph what he was doing still awake, he had a very guilty look on his face, “Hyrum wanted to watch the United States hockey game against Russia.” Mmhmm.

The Olympics are over, but the spirit of competition and the drive to achieve greatness lives on in our home. You know that game where you throw wadded up paper at the trash can like it’s a basketball hoop. That’s one of Joseph's favorites. Only this time instead of paper balls it’s diapers.  He usually misses and has to walk to the trash can anyway, but sometimes he gets just near enough to make him want to try it again, “Oh! So close!”

From the living room to the kitchen trash can, think he can make it? Nah, me neither.