Kids like to run. And they like to run in circles. I'm pretty sure that somewhere there is empirical evidence that given any possible layout or path to follow while running, kids will naturally create something around which to run endless circuits.
(Here's another thing: kids don't get tired.)
My house and the two houses before that all came equipped with natural circuits. Walls, stairs, etc in the center, surrounded by a natural circular pathway. Perfect for running laps.
Destructo-Man doesn't run, but he can do a pretty fast and purposeful walk, arms swinging wildly. It's as close to running as he can come and he can disappear pretty fast doing it, when he wants to.
Ninja Girl was born running. Well, not quite. Actually, she was born pissed off. Who decided it was a good idea to be born into a body that couldn't do anything? When she finally got mobile and fgured out the crawling thing after about 9 months, life got much better and quieter for all of us. And the day she started walking, she began running too. I don't think she stopped running for at least two years after that, as if she had waited so long for that moment of wild freedom that she wanted to make up for the long months of having been locked in a less-than-mobile baby-body.
The King runs too, but lightly, skimming the surface of the ground, as if he's reluctant to step all the way into his body. He's become more solid as he's gotten older, but he still runs with that airy quality, like he's running from his head and his heart instead of his feet. He's surprisingly fast, though, and I'm certain that now that he's taller than me he's also faster.
Nights, after dinner, some of them run circuits around the indoor track we call the livingroom-kitchen. Sometimes I join them, lapping Destructo-Man easily, avoiding Ikea coffee tables and other obstacles. Ninja Girl taps Destructo-Man lightly on the head as she passes him. He doesn't mind. It's not a race, and there is no winner. He's just doing it for the joy of the run.
Lucas has this odd habit of running himself to the point of sweaty exhaustion, and then asking for a glass of milk. No, he hasn't seen "Anchorman". Yet.
When the minions get going it's pure chaos here only because I have the dead end circuit, so once they get to the end of the hall the whip around and come peeling right back at their brother, wildly staggering at top speeds, banging into the walls as he goes head first in to the one who finds his drunken dance impossible to avoid, CRASH.
Kids like to run. And they like to run in circles. I'm pretty sure that somewhere there is empirical evidence that given any possible layout or path to follow while running, kids will naturally create something around which to run endless circuits.
(Here's another thing: kids don't get tired.)
My house and the two houses before that all came equipped with natural circuits. Walls, stairs, etc in the center, surrounded by a natural circular pathway. Perfect for running laps.
Destructo-Man doesn't run, but he can do a pretty fast and purposeful walk, arms swinging wildly. It's as close to running as he can come and he can disappear pretty fast doing it, when he wants to.
Ninja Girl was born running. Well, not quite. Actually, she was born pissed off. Who decided it was a good idea to be born into a body that couldn't do anything? When she finally got mobile and fgured out the crawling thing after about 9 months, life got much better and quieter for all of us. And the day she started walking, she began running too. I don't think she stopped running for at least two years after that, as if she had waited so long for that moment of wild freedom that she wanted to make up for the long months of having been locked in a less-than-mobile baby-body.
The King runs too, but lightly, skimming the surface of the ground, as if he's reluctant to step all the way into his body. He's become more solid as he's gotten older, but he still runs with that airy quality, like he's running from his head and his heart instead of his feet. He's surprisingly fast, though, and I'm certain that now that he's taller than me he's also faster.
Nights, after dinner, some of them run circuits around the indoor track we call the livingroom-kitchen. Sometimes I join them, lapping Destructo-Man easily, avoiding Ikea coffee tables and other obstacles. Ninja Girl taps Destructo-Man lightly on the head as she passes him. He doesn't mind. It's not a race, and there is no winner. He's just doing it for the joy of the run.