Biggie in the fast lane

Guillermo in the lead

Maya finishing her first lap

Frequently, our living room turns into a NASCAR racetrack. Tuesday was one of those nights.

This is how it usually unfolds:

Guillermo starts the race. He grabs the yellow and orange plastic Little Tikes grocery cart and takes off around the couch, around the chair, in front of the fire place, in front of the TV and past the coffee table. When he passes us, usually in the kitchen, he insists we yell "Lap 1," or "Lap 2." When he's completed four laps, we declare him the winner. 

He can usually win two or three times before Maya is ready to race. She pulls her baby doll stroller, fully loaded with baby, over to the start line. When we start the race, Guillermo blows past her. She happily walks along, while Guillermo moves at full speed. 

"Say Lap 1," he yells, when he passes us. "Lap 1."

"Say Lap 2," he yells, when he passes us again. "Lap 2."

Maya eventually makes her way around the course. 

"Lap," she shouts, stopping for a bit to look at us. "Lap 1," we shout back. She's off again. 

Guillermo finishes the race. 

"Winner!" he exclaims, throwing his arms in the air. "Say I'm the winner." "Winner!" we declare.

Maya hears this from across the room.

"Winner!" she shouts, throwing her arms into the air. "Winner!" we declare.

As you can imagine, Guillermo takes great pains to point out that he's the winner, not Maya. 

"Mommy, Maya not was the winner. I was the winner every time!" he shouts. 

We send him off to get a trophy, usually a cart full of cardboard blocks. 

Tonight, he called his race car "Biggie." 

I do believe he meant it as a shout out to Biggie Smalls.

"I love it when they call me Big Papa ..."