Party tricks
This weekend, I went to a family birthday party for my nephew, who just turned four (it is so weird, by the way, that my oldest nephew is turning TEN this summer, and my youngest niece is rapidly approaching her second birthday. I am feeling super-old). Somehow, as the kids get older, they seem to be getting slightly more mellow, or maybe I'm just growing more accustomed to the chaos. But in any event, for the first time in a long time at a Tangent family gathering, I was able to have a handful of conversations with other grown-ups that were not interrupted by screaming, crying, and/or persistent shirt-tugging accompanied by a small voice repeating, "Mommy? Mommy? MOMMY!"
The other odd thing was that my oldest nephew was obsessed with his discovery that he could contort his body in a way that no grown-up can -- until my older sister proved him wrong, quite gleefully.
The idea is to stand up, hands clasped behind your back; then, without releasing your hands or sitting down, to move your hands down the back of your body until you can step through your hands. If you can get both feet through, you're successful.
I think our nephew's correct that most grown-ups can't do this; I think my sister has an incredibly narrow frame (I gave up in five seconds, after realizing there was no way I was making it over my hips), and unusually long, thin arms (monkey arms, she says), plus long fingers to boot.
But, please, give it a shot, and let me know if any of my post-adolescent readers can pull this off. Extra-credit if you can do it wearing dollar-store handcuffs (which my sister could not, and she's awfully bitter about it).
The other odd thing was that my oldest nephew was obsessed with his discovery that he could contort his body in a way that no grown-up can -- until my older sister proved him wrong, quite gleefully.
The idea is to stand up, hands clasped behind your back; then, without releasing your hands or sitting down, to move your hands down the back of your body until you can step through your hands. If you can get both feet through, you're successful.
I think our nephew's correct that most grown-ups can't do this; I think my sister has an incredibly narrow frame (I gave up in five seconds, after realizing there was no way I was making it over my hips), and unusually long, thin arms (monkey arms, she says), plus long fingers to boot.
But, please, give it a shot, and let me know if any of my post-adolescent readers can pull this off. Extra-credit if you can do it wearing dollar-store handcuffs (which my sister could not, and she's awfully bitter about it).
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