Here’s Callie doing a somersault. Callie has just turned two years old. I don’t know what the pediatric progress charts say about when a kid is supposed to attempt her first somersault, but Callie’s been doing them now for a while. She got the idea from her three year old sister and has been doing them seemingly since she developed enough balance while upright to put her head on the floor again and flip.
I don’t know if Callie’s ahead or behind the curve on agility activities like somersaults, but I do know that I wrestled and played and flipped her big sister a lot more at her age than I do Callie. When Cora was 2YO Callie was just a baby who stayed right where you put her. Cora and I would roll around the floor, jump, throw, somersault, and cart wheel to her little heart’s delight. She got a lot of exercise and agility practice with her old man.
Callie hasn’t gotten the same treatment because her sister isn’t a stationary baby but an active and heavy 3YO. If I throw Callie then I have to throw Cora. That’s hard! If I bounce Callie on my foot like a horsey then I have to bounce Cora too. Feel the burn.
So I’m not sure how to resolve this: a strategy to find play time away from Cora or a balm to soothe my conscience about how differently I’ve treated them.