"Kids: they dance before they know
there is anything that isn't music."
William Stafford
We have a little evening ritual that has somehow come to be known as, "Nudie-Lie-Down." It happens during the time after dinner and before the girls' bath. While one parent clears away the dinner dishes, the other parent takes the girls into the living room, strips them down to their respective underpants & diaper, and plays. (Just to clarify, both parents remain fully clothed. Not that I have anything against naked dishwashers.) Usually Nudie-Lie-Down involves a bit of wrestling, the playing of various musical instruments, and of course, dancing.
Our favourite song to dance to at the moment is called, "Hot N' Cold," and it's a real crowd pleaser. Even Crazybaby does a form of "seat-dancing," because she's not standing on her own just yet. Last night Pip decided that it would be appropriate to lose the underpants and don a pair of fluorescent green goggles for the dancing portion of our nudie-lie-down. There she was, buck naked except for the green goggles, dancing her little heart out while Big Daddy-O and I tried to contain our laughter.
It made me wish that I was as unselfconscious as Pip. I do recall Irish Jigging in someone's kitchen at a party once, but that was after a few ale. It seems that we start off as kids being completely uninhibited, then something changes and we spend the rest of our lives trying to regain the confidence to express ourselves freely. What is it that changes? Is it simply the awareness that we are separate from others? Is it the perception of peer-judgement? A disapproving glance? I think I'm becoming more uninhibited in my old age as I care less about what others think. It's not an easy one for me, but I'm learning...from a be-goggled little nudist.
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