The Olympics have taken center stage at our castle.

Prince #3 at 6 years of age is already showing promise for the 2016 swim team. Never mind that he can’t swim across the pool without grabbing the side at least once. He has perfected his warm up moves gleaned from Michael Phelps. After standing on the edge of the pool shaking out his arms he makes me count down to the start of the race. After I yell, “GO!” he belly flops in, dog paddles to the other side and makes a turn that might come in under two and a half minutes. Gasping for breath by this time he reels his way to the finish line. Hanging over the buoy line while spitting water, he whips off his goggles to stare at his imaginary scoreboard. He is always in first place, imagine that, and commences to pump his arms and occasionally seeks out my face in the crowd. He hasn’t worked his way up to a medal ceremony yet but I see him eyeing the coffee table.

Prince #2 couldn’t really care about the festivities but could win the gold for teasing Prince #1. After ogling over Sasha Cohen during the winter games two years ago Mr. 15 year old has lust in his heart for gymnast Nastia Liukin. He defends her honor whenever I call her Nasty. He is thrilled at the prospect of a victory parade for her when she returns. He trembled when he heard her sweet voice say she was looking forward to attending Southern Methodist University in the fall. SMU is exactly 1.3 miles from our home. My brother in law is on the SMU police force. I have this vision of them trolling the campus in the security golf cart, lights flashing searching for a Nasty sighting.

Go USA!