Everett has discovered the dismount. You know, like in gymnastics, when the hands go up in the air and the plastic smile is glued on for all the judges to see?
Of course, it needs that special Everett twist - the "TAAA!" at the end. I have no idea where he got it, but while we were waiting for Everett's first cousin to be delivered into the world, we were walking on NW 23rd and he started jumping off the cement parking space buffers with a big flourish and yelling "TAAAA!" with a little guttural flare.
Taaaa! is a game to be played with one, two or more players. Its rules are very simple, and usually involve climbing onto an upside-down laundry basket, jumping off a rock, doing a belly slide on a coffee table, building a tower of blocks, or your run-of-the-mill sprint to the living room, fall on your belly, roll over to your back and grab your toes move. After your move, however typical or extraordinary, it is important to clap, raise your hands in the air and yell "TAAAA!" (note: moves performed on your belly sometimes preclude raising your hands in the air)
Everett has become a showman extraordinaire, and he's not shy about bringing in guest perfomers. Yesterday, we were staying with our friends at a cabin in Manzanita, and Everett and Willow (three months his junior, but just as smart as Everett and just a tad bigger) put on a first-rate ring-around-the-rosy show. Willow has the comic timing of...well...Larry, Moe and Curly, to say the least. Her premature "fall downs" were the stuff of legend. And Everett's improvisational worldwide-wrestling moves demonstrated his slapstick genius.
And this morning? Everett's friend Henry came over. Everett leaped from a dead sleep into my arms to play with Henry, almost bowling him over with his excitement. And before long, Everett was standing on his rocking cow's back, scaring his nanny, yelling "TAAAA!"
Would it be unethical to put in a ticket booth on my front porch and start advertising the twice-daily Everett Show?
