Tonight, Michael, Lily, and I watched the USC-Kentucky game, which ended in a frustrating loss. Lily obviously doesn’t “get” football, but will occasionally pipe up with “go go go go!” if Michael and I get excited, and often refers to the fact that the players throw, catch, kick, and fall (“Fall! Fall! Kaboom!).
During the last few minutes of tonight’s game, Lily, quite appropriately, decided to play one of her favorite games. It’s called “sad,” and it’s when she tells me to be “sad” and “cry.” If I don’t do it, she whines and repeats herself until I genuinely want to cry, so she pretty much wins either way. She will sometimes do a fake cry herself, but she by far prefers me to be “sad.” Once I start “crying,” she will turn to Michael and start shouting “mom-mom…sad!” (this past week, I became “mom-mom” instead of “mama,” and Michael is now “dad-dad” instead of “dada”) until he acknowledges I am sad. Then, she will pat me on my leg or shoulder, hug me, or share her lovey with me to cheer me up. Then she tells me to be “sad” again, and we repeat this process 5,000 times or until I just can’t take it anymore. It’s quite a ridiculous game, and I try not to focus too much on what it means that her favorite game is watching other people be sad.
I will eventually get to a point here, I promise.
So tonight, I think I did some of my finest “sad” work ever, because I was, indeed, quite sad that the Gamecocks let this game get away from them. Michael and I were both a bit dejected as the football game ended. I convinced Lily that our game of faking “sad” was also over, so we turned the TV off and got ready to take Lily upstairs for bed.
That’s when Lily walked over to her toy shopping basket, plopped it on her head, and announced that she was wearing a “helmel” (helmet). I ran to grab my camera, and:
She was SO proud of herself, and I thought it was just adorable. I was amazed, too, that she thought of it as a helmet instead of a hat – she has known about football helmets for a while, but she has never seen one in person, and we didn’t really talk about them tonight. I just love watching her mind work! The timing was perfect, and gave me the laugh I needed to forget my frustration.
She wore her “helmel” as we went upstairs, and insisted on wearing it while Michael read her some of her bedtime stories.
Thanks for lightening the mood, baby!
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