During daylight hours, our TV is never on unless there’s a cartoon or muppet prancing around on it (which is not all that often). This all changed during Wimbledon when Jan decided to watch Spain kick some ass. Emily wasn’t very impressed. She started by grabbing the remote control and pleading to us, “Elmo? Elmo! More Elmo!!!” Jan was undeterred.

Now, whenever Jan attempts to watch anything on TV not intended for rugrats (it could be the weather report), Emily stands there with her hands on her hips and, making it abundantly clear that she’s not amused by the situation, disdainfully asks, “Tennis?!”

But she’s gotten past that now.

Emily was actually sitting on the couch watching the Olympic track and field events on her own the other day. Jan and I were in the kitchen preparing dinner. After attentively watching the long jump competition, Emily decided to recreate the event in our living room so we just left her to it. But then, from the other room, we heard her start to repeat the same sentence over and over again. “No running. Walking. No running. Walking. No running. Walking now. No running! Walking!” After a couple of minutes of this, we had to find out what in blue blazes was going on. Sure enough, she was watching the racewalking competition. Jan and I were ROTFLMAO. Then the broadcast switched over to the sprints in the stadium and Emily shot off like a bullet around the house with every starter pistol. “I running! I running!”