Sofa acrobatics

Usually, the living room has a small corner with toys in it. Well, actually, there are usually some on Rosemary’s small table, some on the mantelpiece, some on the sofas…

But, this was after an hour or so of Rosemary’s favourite activity at the moment – acrobatics. Mostly this involves doing lots of forward rolls from the arm of the sofa (on the left) onto the sofa body. It also includes spins, star jumps, triple bounces (yeah, no idea of a remotely technical term), and various kinds of jumps from the sofa onto the duvet. Oh yes, and sometimes double bounces from sofa to sofa.

This was the start of the session, before she’d put duvets everywhere. And that’s just the end of a jump, so it doesn’t give the full effect. Really should have taken some video instead.

I had a brief discussion on Twitter at the time as to whether or not sofa acrobatics are a good thing. The consensus was that it’s an essential part of growing up and I’m generally of that opinion. I think it teaches you a whole bunch of stuff – not least, how to learn from your mistakes, even if those mistakes sometimes mean a broken bone or two. I did it loads as a child and none of my broken bones happened while on the sofa (or even while flying through the air, when using the sofa as a fairground ride). Of course, the whole ‘I did it and I’m fine’ argument’ is not a particularly good one. Most of us rode around in our parents’ cars without seatbelts, plenty of us probably lived in a constant fog of cigarette smoke, most of our mums probably smoked and/or drank while pregnant – doesn’t mean we’re going to do the same, just because we happened to survive.

Chris is more cautious though, for the moment, I’ve (maybe, perhaps) persuaded him that it’s a good thing (or possibly just that it’s OK for the moment). In discussing it, though, and over the next day or two, I looked at our reactions to different dangers and risks and realised that we’re probably both equally cautious/blasé, just about different things. For example, Chris plays with the dog in what, to me, seems far too boisterous a manner and it makes me think Wesley’s going to bite his arm off – which really isn’t going to happen, of course. He was throwing Eleanor up in the air today, which had my heart in my mouth – and probably my eyes bulging out of their sockets in shock. But I’ll happily sit her on my lap and ‘drop’ her through my legs. Things can look worse than they actually are. And, of course, Chris is much more relaxed in and around water. I’m far too scared of the stuff, which is why Rosemary, who had her first swimming lessons with me, has only just got to putting her head underwater and being happy about it.

What about you? Do you and your partner have differing levels of caution, or just different areas of caution? Do you think sofa acrobatics are good or bad? Are you having palpitations seeing the mess and feeling the need to come round and tidy up (feel free, by the way)?

Photos: The photos in this post were taken by the new Kodak Easyshare M580, kindly provided by Kodak. I’m hoping to be able to post a lot more photos now, and may even try a bit of video, though you’re not likely to see me in any of the video.