No, this entry has nothing to do with internet Yahoo! This is a story about our girls’ pre-bedtime ritual, which we lovingly call “Yahoo!” After much anticipation, the movie displaying the gleeful tomfoolery of Chloe, Sophie and their Papa is now available (see below).

I usually sit out this tradition, as it involves a bit of running, a lot of yelling, and some gentle throwing onto a bed – a potent mix for trouble that I tend to avoid like the plague lest someone get hurt. But Chloe recruited me the other day to film the ritual for blog posterity (she was indeed disappointed after I informed her that the original film was no good – her mommy is no Steven Spielberg). Here’s how it goes:

Papa sits on the bed in the attic. Chloe goes first, because Chloe always goes first. After yelling “one, two, three, GO!,” she starts running from the other side of the room towards the bed. As she approaches the outstretched arms of her dad, we all yell “Yahoo!” Papa then lifts her up over his head, and she flies through the air onto the mattress behind him.

Sophie goes next. She’s learning to count and has mastered “one, two, three, GO!” Luckily, she doesn’t have to count past three, because in her world, three is followed directly by ten, which is followed by nine. “One, two, three, ten, nine…” But that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, Sophie counts to three, and starts to run (and she’s really fast for a stubby-legged two-year old), we yell “Yahoo!,” and Papa tosses her onto the bed.

The girls, of course, are bursting with giggles and pre-bedtime energy. Papa is bursting with back pain. But no matter, Chloe and Sophie eventually go off to sleep as happy and tired as can be, and the adults in the household have a quiet evening to themselves. Yahoo!