18 years of uwu

anyone else remember being like 13 years old and watching that scene in how to train your dragon (2010) where hiccup carefully navigates the maze of lines toothless has drawn between them without breaking or stepping on any of them and with his back to toothless and eyes shut to demonstrate how he’s willing to put total faith in him not to harm him or run away and to show humility and a desire to establish a natural bond of mutual trust instead of the arrogance to try to force toothless to submit to his will and hearing the music crescendo and fade into silence as he finally crosses the last obstacle so that they’re standing mere inches from one another, tension built on years of bad blood between their two races, so immense it’s almost like a physical barrier, separating them, and after what feels like forever toothless presses his nose gently into hiccup’s outstretched palm and it fits perfectly like it was made solely for that specific purpose, and feeling all the hairs on your neck stand up and a stifling sensation that brought actual tears to your eyes rise in your throat as it touched something profound and full of unspeakable yearning inside you

No seriously it really is amazing. It’s called ISR Self Rescue. I’ve seen multiple parents on social media decide to do this with their babies as young as 6 months (they gradually get up to the “throwing” into the pool) and it’s so awesome watching it.

Crazy factoid: Babies are actually born knowing how to hold their breath and use swim-like movements when submerged. Yeah. It’s a primitive reflex that they lose (if not enforced) at ~6 months.

Also, as with so many things with infants and small children, mood is such a big deal. Letting your baby fall into the pool and not freaking out means your kid will probably be calm as they learn to maneuver in the water. If you panic, they’ll panic, cuz babies are very dependent on adults for emotional cues. So it’s also about helping parents maintain their calm in handling children swimming.

My ancestors, watching me dump an entire stick of cinnamon, two cloves, an allspice berry, and a generous grating of nutmeg into my tea, sweetened with white sugar and loaded with cream, while I sit in my clean warm house surrounded by books, 25+ outfits for different occasions, and 6 pairs of shoes, in a building heated so well I have the windows open in mid-autumn:

BUT IS NOBODY GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE REST??!?1?!