We've been through Canadian geese, texting cats, the iPhone, eating toiletries, sticking random things into hard drives, watching kids jump into pools, band-aids, cake smelling, feet smelling, marker smelling, department store mattresses, berating Minnie Mouse, YouTube cooking videos, and my pajamas...just to name a few.
Her latest obsession is cartwheels. She loves watching other people do tumbling moves, and her new opening line to perfect strangers -- replacing such classics as asking them their last name or telling them not to run with scissors -- is now "Can you do a round-off?"
I thought at first that the movements were a visual stim for her, but she seemed equally thrilled with the static scarecrow in the above photo who was frozen mid-cartwheel. I think she thought that if she attempted enough cartwheels in front of him that he'd animate himself and join her...
Now that Halloween is over and the scarecrow exhibit at the Arboretum has no doubt been taken down, she'll have to rely on her other source for a cartwheel fix...Dancing With The Stars. Every Monday and Tuesday, she begs to stay up and watch the show hoping that they will perform "fun dances". Meaning ix-nay on the Viennese waltz and up with the jive, quick-step, samba, etc.
When she is finally rewarded with a somersault, cartwheel, or flip, she commandeers the TiVo remote and rewinds over and over and over and over and over...
....until all I hear when I'm trying to fall asleep is:
"This is the most difficult choreography that I've ever attempted on Dancing With The Stars."
"Really? That's pretty intimidating. That means..."
"It means that I have faith in you and I think you can do it."
"I won't let you down."
"Elbows back! Elbows locked!"
Of course, this wasn't half as bad as the week that Nancy Grace did a cartwheel during practice, exposing her gut to God and country. Try watching that 984 times and getting to sleep...