I can ride a bike, but it's been decades. I grew up in the country, and distances, hills and roads without shoulders kept me from going far. Can jump rope. Fairly incompetent with a ball. Cartwheels are a mystic art to which I have not been initiated.

Cartwheels are, I think, gendered.

Very true. That would be a great name for an all-girl punk band, too, now that I think about it.

Just read this story and it made me happy, so I thought I'd share it. [link]

I admit I was skimming when I saw this and wonder what I did to make ita hate me.

I knew as I was typing that I was doing something messy, but the caps and lowercase are so different in my head I couldn't work out what. Sorry! No hateration from me in your direction, rest assured.

Up to 1993, I'd only spent two years living not-on-an-island. And for most of my time in Michigan I lived right up on the river. New Orleans, on the Bayou.

I only wish I could be that close to the water here, but I can smell it, and that's a start. It's only 10 minutes away. Mostly.

Like, can you ride a bike? Do a cartwheel? Catch, throw, hit a ball? Jump rope?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Though I can't: ride without using my hands or do any fancy jump roping. Never worked out how to learn, either. And thinking about it, I could swim decently before I started learning any of those, because I don't actually remember initially learning to swim.

Like, can you ride a bike?

Yes.

Do a cartwheel?

No.

Catch, throw, hit a ball?

Yup. Baseball was my favorite sport to play as kid. Though I wasn't particularly good at it.

Jump rope?

Maybe? I think I can do the basic just jump over the rope thing without killing myself, but anything more complicated leads to badness.

Like, can you ride a bike? Do a cartwheel? Catch, throw, hit a ball? Jump rope? Skate? Any other skill I didn't mention?

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, too broad.

I had swimming lessons when I was 4. Then I grew up in South Florida so beach going and pools were a constant. Most of my teen years leisure activities were at the beach, and most of my H.S. friends were on the swim team and/or water polo team.

So I spent a lot of time in the water. Pools, ocean, freshwater canals.

Emmett likes splashing in pools but he isn't really a swimmer quite yet. Well, he can swim underwater, it's the staying on top part he hasn't mastered.

Like, can you ride a bike? Do a cartwheel? Catch, throw, hit a ball? Jump rope? Skate? Any other skill I didn't mention?

I've done all of those as a kid (though I sucked at actually hitting the ball), but I have never ever ice skated, unless you count slipping around in regular shoes on the rare patch of ice.

See, I can ride a bike (and I still do), I can do a cartwheel (and I still do), I can jump rope and was in fact quite good a double dutch at one point (though I can jump rope, it's harder than it used to be), I can rollerblade, but don't know if I can still ice/roller skate. I can't throw or catch worth a damn and never could. But it wasn't the skill set I wanted.

I've never tried to teach an adult to pat her head while rubbing her belly, either.

Head patting and belly rubbing is easier to teach, in my experience. Teaching adults to cartwheel (or even teens) has been hard too.