It Began with a BBFT

The summer olympics have been over for nearly a month now, but due to life circumstances (moving, working, parenting 3, gestating 1) I didn't get to put in an entry during the Olympics. I wanted to put in a poignant blog post while sitting and watching the historic opening ceremonies to mark the beginning of yet another 2 weeks of glorious olympic TV watching. I am officially olympics obsessed. I do not watch ANY other televised sports nor do I pay attention to any other sports. I wear the OSU gear partly because we live in Columbus and partly because I just love the soft collegiate OSU tees that homage sells but I could not tell you the name of one player or even the coach since they lost that last one with the V-neck sweater outfit.  However the olympics are a different story. I can list various star athletes, their sports, their medal counts, who their mother is and what their hometown is. I don't know what it is about the olympics. Maybe it is because it only comes every 4 years or maybe it is because it is choc full of human interest stories--even the commercials are heartwarming during the olympics ("to their moms they are always just kids"--gets me every time) but I try to absorb every minute that I can during the games.


The other thing I love about the Olympics is thinking back to what my life was like at the last opening ceremony and the last olympics (I consider summer separate from winter so I use 4 years as my marker which is more dramatic). In college during the closing ceremonies I remember making my roommates write down what was going on in their lives now and what they think their lives will be like in 4 years--I can't remember if they cooperated or not and I have no idea where those papers are--but you get the idea of my sentimentalism. 4 years is apparently a long time because every time it seems that my life is dramatically different. Maybe it is because the last 16 years have involved life jumps from high school to college, from college to marriage and medical school and then marriage to kids. Four years ago for the Beijing olympics I was enormously pregnant with our first children, Lydia and Grace. Ironically enough for the 2012 London olympics I am gestating yet again, but this time with (most likely) our last child, Baby Boy Battles (names are still up for debate). So, between the last olympics and this one we managed to squeeze in our little (or big depending on how you look at it) family of 4--coincidence or great planning by me for a memorable 2012 olympics? :).  This year of course was much different than our previous olympic experience. The girls are nearly 4 and I was able to introduce them to a little bit of my olympic passion. They particularly liked the gymnastics and when they would come into our bed in the mornings they would ask to watch some recorded olympics from the previous night, especially the 'nastics'. I think that at the next one it will be even more fun to fan the flame of their olympic interest and convince them to cuddle up with me to watch hours and hours of it (TV rules go out the window during the games). Ben at 18 months didn't so much care to watch the olympics but he did like to mess with the TV or computer while we were watching it of course.

So, what will our lives be like at the next one? I imagine it will still feel like a dramatic transition as the girls will be nearly 8, Ben about to start kindergarten (sniff) and Baby Battles #4 will finally have a name and will be a nearly 4 year old probably rough and tumble boy giving Ben a run for his money (if his en utero crazy kicking is any indication of his energy level). I'm already looking forward to it.