The cutest one:
She's been very much into somersaults lately. She figured them out herself. At first she was going over on her back with a big kaboom (and putting her hands down was optional, yikes!) but now she's got the trick with the hands and at least a certain degree of tucking and rolling.
Now if only the roll would start in the correct locations! She's got a good one going in the photo, but she's just as likely to start it going in the opposite direction, and slam into that little window ledge as she goes over. Oww.
She's also doing her tricks on the living room furniture. Imagine walking up to a glider rocker, putting your head down and somersaulting INTO the rocker. Such that your back and legs whomp up into the back of the chair, knocking the whole operation over onto the hardwood floor.
Then there's doing the somersault on the couch, or starting on the couch and flipping to the floor....
She's also got the trick of the gymnastic mount onto the dining room table. No need to climb on chairs anymore. She just puts her hands on the table, makes a little jump so she's supported on straight arms, and climbs from there. And then jumps off, in a glorious flying leap.
I suppose we ought to put her in a gymnastics class (maybe she could wear a velvet leotard...) Alas, there's no Special Olympics gymnastic team for her at this point. There's a gymnastics class for special-needs kids at a very cool facility not too far away, but time and dinero are both in pretty short supply at the moment.
A gymnastics class also wouldn't resolve the aspect of Joy's delight in making us react (and we HAVE to react, for safety reasons). Between her seeking of the reaction plus the sensory bang, it all adds up to a lot of scrambling for the parents and the baristas. And she's so fast.
Has anyone else got a furniture gymnast? How do you deal?
5 comments:
kenz LOVES her some somersaults too .. she too used to do them kinda willy nilly, often starting inches from a wall and getting stuck. it sounds like the difference is speed. kenz doesn't roll fast, so the damage tends to be pretty contained. padded furniture??
Oh dear, the memories of somersaulting down this HUGE (from 5 year old eyes) hill at home, which I now see and so so tiny. What fun...now how to keep it safe???? Sorry no answers here!
For about two years, my family room looked a bit like a padded cell. I had blankets and pillows and other soft items covering every sharp corner, I put away all the breakables, and I emptied out furniture. Taz still managed to somersault into our TV cabinet and shatter the glass doors, but they were under blankets so the glass was covered.
Welcome to the asylum!
ME says all I could suggest - modifying the environment to afford safety and opportunity.
While I am sympathetic to the adults, I love the physical activity and skill she is using.
Parenting causes tough choices not matter if the gymnast classes are special or not.
Can't help but mention that she is doing self-initiated heavy work giving herself lots of vestibular and proprioceptive input. It's.what.I.do. BRatK
It seems like the gymnastics team for Rhema has slightly made things worse in terms of the antics at home. There's lots of climbing, somersaults, rolls and tucks and swinging from door handles and shower curtain rods. Between the running and gymnastics, Joy and Rhema would make quite a team!
Joy's hair is really growing in, huh?!
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