Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Training them Early

Living in Oregon, we know we have two challenges in getting Owen and Josh to follow in the Husky tradition that runs deep through both families. First, we need to teach them the beauty of the purple and gold. Second, we need to come up with out-of-state tuition!

For now, we're thrilled to be making good progress on that first challenge. Between the two Husky tailgates in September and all the purple and gold clothing in his closet, Owen is hooked on the Huskies!
(Snacks and Football!)

Some might quibble that this is actually an LSU jersey (Thanks Aunt Tracy), but Owen can't read and he's insistent on wearing this jersey for game days and at least once/week to school.

We've been working with Owen all season to help him understand the football concept. First, he thought every football game on TV was the Huskies. We would put his jersey on game days and he would run down to the TV insisting that "THERE the Huskies" while two SEC teams were playing at 9 AM. (I think he just wanted a reason to watch TV.)

Next, he figured out there are lots of teams and that the Huskies are the ones wearing purple. Which worked great until the Huskies wore white at Notre Dame. And Owen cheered for the Fighting Irish in their Navy. Bugger!

Now, he's really starting to get it. We had the whole family over during Thanksgiving weekend to watch the Apple Cup. My mom taught him about running, throwing, and tackling and how to cheer for one team or the other.
(Hey, hey, the gang's all here)

Now, Owen wants to know the names of every team playing and gives his own little play-by-play. For the Apple Cup, we heard lots of this:
"Huskies Running!"
"Huskies Running Again."
"Huskies go fast."
"Those the Cooters."
"Cooters Fall Down."
"Huskies tackle the Cooters!"
Pretty much sums up the game, I think.

(Josh getting a nap with some subliminal messaging from Papa)

On another note, this was an unfortunate year for us living in Oregon - to watch both Oregon teams playing for the Pac-10 Championship? Urgh. At least Owen has that figured out, too. When I walked downstairs to see the boys watching the game, here was the conversation:
"Who's Playing Owen?"
"Those the Duckies and those the Beavers."
"Who are we cheering for?"
"Beavers....and the Huskies!"

Enough said.

7 comments:

Peg said...

Nice work on the early baptism into Husky life! He's right - go Beavs.

Colleen said...

Well done! Our boys already have the BYU fight song memorized, so we are firm believers in the training them early philosophy too :). We always have to say, "Not THOSE Cougars, they're red, we root for the BLUE Cougars!" Sorry, we can't root for the Beavers this year!

Anonymous said...
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I am Kate Maxwell said...

really? the gang's ALL there? hmm...

I am Kate Maxwell said...

on the other hand, GO DAWGS!!!

Anonymous said...

Love Owen in his Husky AND LSU purple and gold!!! When he watches a 9:00 A.M. SEC game, tell him to NEVER cheer for 'Bama - brain-wash him early on that!!!! Loved the picture of Josh and Kirk - I don't know who looked more comfortable!!! Love, Aunt Tracey

Anonymous said...

I had to chuckle when I saw Owen sitting in his purple jersey... Lauren was wearing her Locker jersey on Saturday against Cal (and to school on Tuesday). Unfortunately, Max was in his Cal onesie to appease Robert. I guess I'll take it that the thinking child is in purple and gold while the blob (I mean this in the nicest way) wears blue and gold. Lauren hasn't quite figured out that the Bears and Huskies aren't always playing when football is on the tv... good work getting Owen to understand that!

Michelle Flegel