Poppy Racing

So today's "good morning time" was the relatively decent hour of 5:15. After some shuffling of children, our boy and I ended up downstairs, with Daddy and the baby in bed. What do you do with an eager-beaver 3 year old that early in the morning? Poppy Racing, of course!

In other households, Poppy Racing is known as Mario Kart Wii. It was forever renamed by our little boy, who has a grandfather that's a dead ringer for Mario. Other Mario games are lumped under the title "Poppy Running and Jumping", but "Poppy Racing" is far and away his favorite.

This morning's round of racing began with selecting the correct racing clothes. For our boy, this meant construction jammies, a hoodie, his new spiderman snowboots (already a wardrobe staple), and his new mittens. I was allowed to race in my jammies (thank God), but was strongly urged to select an appropriate racing hat. Our boy loves the hats, which means I had my choice of construction, fireman, baseball, lion, pirate, or standard winter hat. I dug deep into the bin and pulled out my own favorite, my Year of a Million Dreams Mickey ears. (Hey, it only took me four trips/two years/$8000 to win those ears! Thanks, Disney!) This proved to be an appropriate choice, as our boy's construction hat was quickly abandoned for an identical pair.

Once clothes are selected, we need to choose our racers. I always go for the princess, but our boy will choose between Scary Purple Guy, The Turtle, The Dinosaur or Poppy. He generally insists that everyone choose the same car model known as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (this choice chafes my competitive nature, because it doesn't drive as well. Yes, I want to win, even when my challenger is in pullups). The last choice is the racetrack, and our favorites are Cows, the Mall, The Bouncing One, and the Pirate Ship.

Without further ado, the starting gun goes off, and we begin to...have a Dance Party! That's right, did you know that if you do not accelerate, but merely turn the wheel from side to side, your racers will boogie down inside their little cars? Now you do! And after 5 or so minutes of dancing, Poppy Racing is officially over, signified by our boy wandering away and picking up another toy.

That is Sunday morning in our house. It may sound like a lot of prep for 5 minutes of race time, but as anyone with a 3 year old will tell you, five minutes of sit down entertainment is a precious commodity.