My little mover and shaker

I'm nearly 7 months into my second pregnancy and Connor is now 18 months old. He's developing quite the personality. He's certainly a "happy chappy" as my British born step-mum would say. He's signing like crazy, climbing, running, lifting, playing, and eating whenever and whatever he can.

He's been training with me since he was six months old, or at least that's when I picked up my first client post-baby and post-move-across-country. So working out, movement, and kettlebells are just another part of normal life for him. He can easily press the little 3lb bell we got him. He swings it, as well as the 10lb bell. And he's getting pretty good at rearranging all the bells up to 12kg. One day he was working out with me and deadlifted the 12kg (which is about 26 pounds) 10 times in a row. He hovers around 28/29 pounds himself. So that's pretty much a 100% max deadlift! To say he's sturdy and strong may be an understatement.

It's fun to watch him do joint mobility with my husband. Lumbar circles are more of an hourglass, neck circle combo, but what's surprising, is his balance. He does it without falling down. I'm pretty excited to watch him develop. It's almost like a social experiment...how good of a mover and athlete will he be? Is this where "natural athleticism" or "prodigy" begins? When you read about Mozart or Tiger Woods, or other childhood "naturals" it's easy to uncover where their true beginnings of "natural" talet began. They basically mirrored their parents, who were dedicated professionals in the same areas the children became successful. What's scary about this idea, as with most everything in parenting, is, will I be able to provide my child with the appropriate environment to thrive, and continue thriving?

Other elite athletes have been known to say what makes them great, and continues to make them standout, is they train one level above their current abilities. They are constantly testing their limits and skills against those that are better...learning to fail, and how to recover from those failures, breeds their success. That's my job and challenge as his (current) one and only teacher... Setting him up to learn how to overcome his failures with grace, confidence, strength, and humility.