*Kyle jumping on his birthday
What ever happened to jumping on the bed? When David was in Europe and it was COLD the entire time he was gone, I asked him casually if it would be so bad if I let the kids jump on our bed and leap off of it into a pile of pillows. I had checked my kids' temperatures with my Smart Mom Thermometer and discovered what I already knew--they were sick and furiously feverish with Cabin Fever. And what's the next-best thing to being outdoors? Turning the indoors into the outdoors! I don't know how many times as a child I dragged my mattresses into our living room and did gymnastics with my friends. And we weren't doing silly little rolls. We were doing full handsprings and complete front and back flips. By the grace of God we never flew off into our fireplace hearth or ended up on our necks on top of the piano. If my parents never knew we did this while they were at work, they know now. And aren't y'all glad you paid for all those gymnastics lessons?
Today I was jumping on Kyle's birthday present, a trampoline, and loving it as much, if not more, than they do. I love swings still. I love tireswings too. I even love going down the slide on a playground. The higher and faster, the better. The trampoline has to be one of the best inventions ever. It feeds every sense in the body. It provides tons of joint compression and the nervous system of kids like Kyle LOVE it. Makenna is learning to manage her body on the trampoline, and after I jumped multiple times and was out of breath, I realized what a great workout the trampoline is! And I have to say, I love it too.
As a child, I took daring risks, climbing as high into our mimosa tree as I could. I even jumped out of a tree once at childcare when I was six years old, which resulted in plastic surgery on the tear ducts in my left eye. When I was two years old, my Mom found me sitting atop an a-frame swing set in our backyard...or maybe I was standing? And I can even remember challenging my balance in our home in Austin (so I was under age 8). I remember making it my goal to move around my bedroom without touching the ground because it was quicksand. So what did I do? I stood on all my furniture and crawled from piece to piece, chairs, tables, chest of drawers, bed, you name it. I stood on it. Kyle is learning to walk more in the house which is a work-in-progress. He's growing in his ability to walk in stores and I find him learning to stabalize himself by holding onto the cart and walking at my pace. It's exciting to see him doing this on his own as his brain learns how to manage his 'body in space.'
If you're at all curious about our journey with Kyle, look up www.spdfoundation.net.
God has created us so fearfully and wonderfully. The brain is a fascination that propels one to point to an "Intelligent Designer," even if you're an Atheist. It is hard to deny the role of a Higher Being that brought order out of chaos. I call Him God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The ancient Hebrews called him YHWH. And yet due to the entry of sin into the world, our brains don't always function with perfection, right? But more of that in another blog sometime.
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