My son's tendency to run full throttle, regardless of height or hazard, has given me opportunity to experience two new physical phenomena. Every time I see him stumble, I experience a falling sensation. Not a little yikes but a full blown stomach plunging I'm dropping feeling. Second is my surprising ability to catch him.
After reading The Body Has a Mind of Its Own by Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee (a captivating read), I have a renewed appreciation for how the brain and body network together.
Areas in the brain are devoted to keeping track of limbs, body parts, and other items within close proximity to the body. Moreover, these areas are malleable. With months of carrying and holding my son, my brain's ability to assimilate his form into my own body map may be what's going on. This gives the term "attachment parenting" a whole new physical meaning. Could my brain view my son as an extension of my peripersonal space (the space around the body) even when I'm not holding him? Could this explain why my innards drop as I witness him trip?
And what about my new found agility. I caught him by the ankle as he dove, smiling, head first off the jungle gym at the park. I grabbed him mid air, under the arms as he leaped off a picnic table in cannon ball formation. And I ever so fluidly prevented him from a face first impact when he bounced off the top bunk bed. I couldn't have performed those tasks if I put my mind to it. Maybe his gleeful inability to grasp consequence is really a profound understanding of my reaction limits. Perhaps his brain has incorporated me as an annex map, so-to-speak, of himself. After all, an ear to ear grin develops in concert with me stepping into catching range.
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