The human body is so amazing. Here I am, busy with an active (but finally sleeping) toddler, blogging away, and my body is … creating a new life. At 8 months pregnant, I am constantly aware of the new life inside me, rolling and whirling around, popping his head over this way and then that way, and it is still as much of a miracle to me as it was the very first time I learned that I was pregnant with Widget. Whybaby is active and BIG now, and in the evenings I can watch my stomach move up and down as he kicks or punches or just tries out those little hands and feet. He’s really in there, and he’s BUSY. He behaves differently than Widget did at this age, I think, and I wonder some times how much of it is due to the difference in my own activity levels this pregnancy and last, and how much of it is personality of the baby, and how much of it is simple random chance.
For a scientist trained in physics and chaos theory, I really don’t put much stock in random chance. But I’ve learned more and more over the past 2 years as we’ve begun raising Widget that there are so many factors that just aren’t easily explainable by genetic heritage or by the way that we’re raising him. There are just some things that are all his own. For instance, I was looking through our huge stash of pictures last weekend in preparation for making our Christmas cards, and I found dozens of pictures that I took this Summer and Fall of Widget playing in a cloud of bubbles. Sometimes he was trying to catch them, and sometimes he was running through with a “whee!” or a “zoom!” Once he was trying to catch them on a frisbee, which I thought was particularly entertaining. Then I found the one that just summed it all up. Widget in the twilight with a cloud of bubbles around his angelic face, as he smacked them with his toy wiffle ball bat! Ah, the pleasures of boydom.
None of us in my family or Daddy’s family are particularly athletic. In fact, none of us particularly played sports at all. I flirted with soccer, and Daddy played Little League, but let’s just say that the scouts weren’t exactly after us for college scholarships. Or, say, ice cream after the big game. Both uncles were more athletic, with Daddy’s brother on the popular teams in high school and my brother an amazing soccer player, but they had other interests as kids too. Widget, however, is OBSESSED with balls of all kinds, and he lives to kick, to throw, to catch, to hit, to dunk, to pass, and to cheer in triumph when he gets the ball where he intended it to go. He’s good at it too — he throws or kicks accurately to another person up to 10 feet away, he can catch, he hits the wiffle ball off the t-ball stand with the bat without shaking or knocking over the stand, he makes baskets in hoops of varying heights, and he has a killer dunk. He enjoys it so much that we encourage it, and play sports with him, which is pretty funny for two scientist-bookworm parents like us these days. We’re going to have to get back in shape QUICK to keep up with him as he grows in size and strength!
Upon further reflection, I should mention that my younger brother is extremely athletic. He does river rescue out West, and he spends his free time hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking, and trying just about anything else that comes his way. He races on the weekends, when he’s not pulling EMT duty or supporting a race with those skills, and he’s even done a triathalon or two. He really loves being outdoors and pushing himself to the limits. I really enjoy being outdoors too; I just prefer long walks in the woods with occasional breaks to sit on a rock or the overhang to a running creek, jotting down thoughts in a notebook or appreciating the local flora. I enjoy being part of nature, at my own pace. But my brother is amazing in his mastery of his environment, and he is in supurb shape. Maybe it’s not so surprising that Widget is an adventurer and a thrower-kicker-runner-hitter after all. Maybe he takes after his uncle in that respect. Maybe. We’ll just have to see how he grows and what he enjoys as the years go by.
The human body is amazing.
Posted in motherhood, toddler
