The Race of All Races

This last weekend we participated in our first baby crawling contest. For some funny reason I always imagined what it would be like to have my child compete in one of those things. I think it's just the competitive side of me. While it didn't turn out the way I thought it would, it was definitely a lot of fun. This is Sofía before the race. As you can see she has her game face on.

Now from the background of this picture you might be wondering where we are...at our friendly Walmart. I'm not a big fan of Walmart but you have to go where the race is. Anyways, Sofía was up against three other babies in her heat. Here she is checking out her competition.

Here is the racing venue. After seeing how small the race track was I figured we had this in the bag. This is embarassing to admit but I made Jeff go to another aisle and we had a practice run with Sofía. It was a piece of cake. She crawled straight to me. (I told you I'm competitive.)

As soon as the babies were set down the competition began. You would have thought there were at least ten babies competing in this race by the noise of the crowd. If only we had brought our digital recorder. I admit I yelled with the rest of the crazy parents and fans. I think we frightened the babies because for a good five minutes they all just sat there in a daze. None of them moved no matter how many times we yelled their names or jiggled food and toys in front of them. Sofía wouldn't even look my way. This is from the same girl who looks for me every ten seconds when we're at home. This time she avoided all eye contact.

Alas, when the babies did find their legs Sofía was left in the dust. This picture here is a bit deceiving. She didn't even leave that starting line. Jeff thought that if we did half of the work for her she would finish, but no...she just sat there. We finally had to move her off the track for the next race. Our consolation prize? At least she didn't cry. We also had a good laugh.

Now considering how competitive I was over such a small thing I can't imagine what it is going to be like when other things come up. I mention this because just last week my eleven-year-old nephew, Braxton, sang in the Murray Idol Competition. He not only sang in front of four judges (all voice teachers) but also to a crowd of about 200. I know he has a good voice but he's never sang in front of anybody other than in an occasional Primary program. Needless to say I was a bit nervous for him. Fortunately, he had a good experience. The kid sang well. Best of all he didn't avoid the judges but stood right in front of them and made good eye contact. Yesterday, they had a results night where he sang again for placing third. Way to go Braxton.