We adults can perform most basic life skills, on any given day, for example: driving safely, opening a lock with a key, reading a book or the newspaper, and jumping. That's right, the act of bending your knees, doing the wind up and hip wiggle to engage intertia, and then jumping; we don't even think about it. We forget as functional grown-ups that our brain had to learn how to do all these things we take for granted.
After months of practicing and looking awkward, Raphaela surprised me tonight at her swim lesson, when she executed a perfect feet-first jump into the water. She touched the bottom of the pool and was so exhilarated that she continued jumping for another 20 minutes, emerging each time with the hugest smile on her face.
CANNON BALL! (Picture giant splash here)
I knew exactly how she felt; I still remember the first time I performed a perfect dive, head down and body streamline, that sense of time standing still as you glide through the water like a dolphin. That serenity at being suspended and weightless, as if you were floating in space. That joy is the reason I swim and scuba dive even today.
As a mother, I could not feel any more proud. As a Chiropractor and a scientist, I am endlessly fascinated watching my daughter's brain evolve right in front of my eyes, observing her learning process as she acquires new skills.
She has recently cemented Hebrew as a first language, when she started a sentence, "EMM [the Israeli equivalent of "Um" or "like" in America], I want some waffles for breakfast please." The fact that my two and a half year old is bi-lingual, that her brain flows naturally between two completely distinct languages, blows me away.
(Yep, I am a science geek.)
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