Emily's Athletic Skills

So Emily is becoming quite the athlete. We had given her a trike around her second birthday and until we left Korea she hadn't done a ton with it. We unpacked it here and looked out on our patio one day and saw her tearing around on it, and I mean tearing around. I guess when she decided she wanted to learn to peddle, she really learned! When we got here she got a little bike with training wheels and though the loved it, she seemed to have a hard time figuring out how to peddle (and steer for that matter). So about a week ago she runs in and tells she figured out how to ride her bike. I expected to go out and see her tentatively peddle a few feet. Not so, she hopped on that bike with confidence and took off like a speed demon. The kid is fast.

She has also developed a real interest in other sports. She likes to ask us to help her play baseball. This poses a challenge since we don't have a baseball or a bat (guess it's time to invest in some plastic wiffle balls). So Tyler set her up with a roll of paper and a ball on the patio and she loves knocking the ball off the ledge (in true T-ball style). She loves it! To go along with this they are learning to play cricket at school for sports day on Friday. She's got to be one of few American kids that knows how to play cricket.

Her athleticism shows most, though, when she runs. The girl is fast and has some impressive endurance. Tyler will occasionally take her for runs in the jogging stroller, letting her out to run beside him when she wants. She has been knows to run straight for a good .5 mile before getting tired. They have been practicing races at school for sports day and her teacher was rather shocked when Emily got out there and started running. Appearances can be deceiving! She goes to school most of the time with a dress on and her hair done in pigtails or with barrettes. She doesn't strike you as a speed demon. So everyone was surprised when she took off. Her teacher calls her Super Speedy now and Emily loves it.

When we got home from preschool today I asked her if she wanted to show me some of her races. She sighed and said, "No Mom lets go do some girl thing. Like play dress up." What a kid. I look forward to all the chaos that Sports Day is bound to bring!