On Bravery

Last week Simon was very nervous about going to swimming lessons. He'd been fine the first time, but for some reason, was extremely apprehensive about going the second time. When I picked him up he claimed injury in several places (i.e. "I banged my shoulder earlier. I don't think we can go to swimming lessons."). When this failed as a tactic he grew silent. He did not want to get out of the car when we got to the rec center.

Me: Maybe you could pretend to be somebody really brave. Like a knight.

Simon: I don't want to be a knight.

Me: Or Spiderman.

Simon: Spiderman isn't real.

Me: Well, can you think of somebody real who is brave that you could be?

Simon: Who's that guy, where there were two teams, and one team was smaller than the other team but they won anyway?

Me: 

Simon: From Sunday School.

Me: Judah Maccabee?

Simon: Him, yes. I want to be him.

This impersonation (which involved brandishing his towel as a shield from the presumed onslaught delivered by the kids (aka the Syrian army) leaving the rec center after the previous class), at least, got him in the door of the building and into the changing room. 

Coming out of the changing room, he decided to just be Simon again, and proceeded into the pool. 

The internets

Simon and I heard a story about Google Chrome yesterday on NPR. At the end of the story, the reporter signed off from Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Me: Maybe we should start using Chrome on our computer.

Simon: Well, they said it was in California. Daddy has been to California, maybe we could send him back there, and he could pick it up for us.

That's a Wrap on Summer

Yesterday we had "Simon Day" at our house--it was the day before school started, and Simon got to pick everything we did. We spent most of the day at the Natural History Museum, with a stop at Baja Fresh and another at Home Depot to pick up some paint chips for his collection.

In the car on the way home from Home Depot, Simon inquired as to whether that was the last event of Simon Day.

Me: Well, I think so. Unless you want to have Closing Ceremonies.
Simon: We don't have 1.3 billion people in our family, so that's impossible.

more Olympic musings

***
Simon reads in the paper that China has more gold medals, but the US has more total medals. He thinks this over.

Simon: Wouldn't it be cool if you could be Chinese-American?
Me: You can!
Simon: really???
Me: Well, *you* can't, but lots of people are Chinese-American, maybe they moved here from China, or their parents or ancestors did.
Simon [thinking...thinking...thinking..lightbulb turning on]: OH! So African-Americans have an ancestor from Africa?

***

We watched last week as a kayaker from Togo won the bronze, the first medal ever for Togo in the Olympic Games. Ever. Simon was very taken by this news. He's been bringing it up a lot. Last night we watched some rowing race in which Australia won a medal. Simon notes that Australia has already won many medals.

Simon: Wouldn't it be cool if Australia, just for the Olympics, was part of Togo, and then when they won that medal, Togo would have won their second medal!!

[pause]

Simon: But, I guess, winning your second medal wouldn't be as exciting as winning the first one, so maybe that wouldn't matter.

[pause]

Simon: But, Michael Phelps was really, really happy to win his second medal, so probably Togo would still like to win another one, too.

If you can't beat 'em...

David and Simon are playing "Olympics."

David: Okay, which country are we now?
Simon: Let's be the United States.
David: Okay. Ready? On your mark...
Simon: Wait, no. Let's be China. They have a lot more gold medals.

Olympic dreaming

Simon, while watching the Olympics:

"wow."
"can you do that?"
"I can bend forward but not backward like that."
"If it was in my world, everybody would get a medal."
"Why don't they play all 3 national anthems for the medal winners?"
"I think they're all doing really well."
"Why would anybody be sad to get a silver?"
"wow."
"nobody in this whole family could do that."
"I think the top 8 should get medals."
"Even Daddy can't do that."
"All I want is the underwater camera, turn back to the underwater camera."
"Michael Phelps rules."
"Are all the athletes either American or Chinese?"
"wow."

it's baaaaaaack!

I'm in the kitchen, Simon's in the living room.

I can hear him humming but only faintly. The tune is familiar, but I can't quite place it. I walk into the living room so I can hear better...

...and there he is...

doing (and humming) the Macarena.