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We are not sure when the boys first spanned the walls of the hallway, but it was certainly a time when there were far more photos and kid art taped there. Probably it was the occasional time when one of them was lying in the hallway waiting to use the bathroom and pushed feet on one side and hands and maybe the head on the other. Then it became "look, I'm a bridge!" and trying to hold in one place long enough for someone to crawl underneath. This past summer saw both boys learn to swing on the monkey bars (although Josiah is three and a half years older, he often doesn't try things he is capable of doing until Andrew does it). Also, seeing gymnastics in the Summer Olympics and taking a kid's gym class locally at Garland's Gym in Richland seems to have emboldened them. Regardless, in November the house began reverberating regularly to the stomping of feet on the walls and thudding to the carpet as pictures were either shaken or scrubbed off the walls. At this time, Andrew still does the old-style bridge while Josiah prefers the split-mount that his extra height affords, and can easily do no hands, and struggles to hold his feet up for a couple of seconds like doing the rings in gym. He also likes to walk up, forwards, and backwards and can turn himself around in a couple of steps, looking like a Twister game on its side. The little orange cat paper cutout on the left wall in the picture (next to the yellow striped Andrew figure) also served as their marker for a climbing game. Josiah would climb up and stick it high on the wall, and Andrew would slowly bridge himself up high enough to reach it. After a few days, Andrew was no longer afraid of the height and could pick it from whereever Josiah put it. The obvious question is why the parents would put up with this activity (some bits of plaster have been removed as well as photos). One reason is that even at its noisiest, it is quieter than some of the warlike pretend games they do, and gives Josiah a break from all his magazine reading. Also, it gives them some workout for their arms, which usually do not maintain the proportional strength they had as toddlers. But primarily, it is because they can do something that the big people can't, and is still looks fun. |