Well, I had intended to write about Ella’s recent discovery of and interest in Therians, which involves bouncing around and dressing up like an animal (her preference is a cat or wolf). Then yesterday, she went to a birthday party at a Parkour facility and… fractured her foot. Too much ouch to bounce.

Let’s start at the beginning. During the Winter Break from school, Ella let us know that she had decided she was a Therian. Never heard of that? Me neither. Short version, as explained by a 10-year-old and mostly backed up online: It’s when someone identifies with an animal spiritually, enjoys wearing animal-like attire (don’t call it costumes and definitely don’t call them Furries), and moving like an animal.

I’m going to give my personal opinion here. This description fits so many of Ella’s traits that’s it’s no wonder that when one of her school friends was into it that she’d want to dive right in and explore. Here are just some of the Ella traits that are well-suited for therianthropy (yes, that’s a word):

CREATIVITY.

Being a Therian offers a lot of space for creativity and hands-on art skills. She has made 10 masks so far, all with different looks (mostly cats, one “wolf), which requires using felt, paint, mesh, accessories (including ivy and sparkly accoutrement) to decorate a pre-fabricated face mask that covers the top half of your face. The world is your oyster when it comes to decorations, and she’s even drawn on top of a mask she designed to create a new look. She’s added bigger ears, used all sorts of colors, and even learned the cat type she’s drawing. I do not hate the LEARNING aspect of this.

PLAY.

Already interested in theater, this kid goes to school with a group of friends who love to act (remember Drama Maniacs, where they write their own lines?). Surrounded by a group of equally imaginative kids, she gets to make up characters and scenarios and play with others during the after school program. They play “Family” often, where they rotate who gets to pretend to be the mom, the dad, the kid and so on. No, I do not wish I had a video of that, though I’ve overheard some of their discussions when they play this on their iPads and am frequently annoyed when calling out “Mommy” (to which I respond) isn’t me… Bottom line: This kid loves to play, and when she gets to wear a fluffy tail to do so, all the better.

MOVEMENT.

From gymnastics to karate and more, Ella loves to move her body in interesting ways. Now, I’ll say for sure that the first time she showed me how she was learning to leap like a cat, I was skeptical. If you don’t know this already, cats can leap up to 6 feet (some 8 feet!), but then, they have the bodies that make that possible. If you haven’t watched it, check out the documentary “Inside the Mind of a Cat” on Netflix, which we watched when it came out to better understand our own crazy cat Jasmine… Yes, I made Ella rewatch it when she wanted to leap like a cat because honestly, it’s tough to watch a human try to do that (even a young, flexible one).

One more note on movement. There’s something called Quadrobics, which I had also not heard of nor am I going to recommend. It’s basically moving on all fours like an animal, and it’s a LOT of work. As you’d guess, Therians find it interesting to try and move like the animals they like. Bart even took Ella and her friend to a park to try this out, though apparently dirt is not fun to do quadrobics on (unless you’re actually an animal, I suppose). In fact, we put two sections of artificial grass in our backyard for Ella to enjoy, though on day two, when she saw a bug, she was less interested in “running” outdoors.

In case you missed it, Ella’s Year in Review post actually makes all this make perfect sense. Though as a parent, I must admit that my first thoughts were not as supportive. Kids can be cruel, and being different has its pros and cons. On the positive side, she’s very excited and talking about what she’s learning with us, something we very much want to encourage. She’s also in a small school with a big group of friends who love her, so our conversations have been more about the where and when it’s appropriate–and the fact that the world is not always supportive of differences. Sad but true.

Anyway, that leads us to Ella’s break. Yesterday, this movement loving child went very enthusiastically to a Parkour facility, Tempest Academy (click that link to see what it’s like), for her friend’s birthday. Before that she worked a two-hour Girl Scout Cookie booth (get your cookies here, if you haven’t already), ate lunch, and then headed to the party at 3:30 pm, which was supposed to last until 6:30 pm. You may have guessed, I am not the best parent to supervise this sort of event, so Bart took her while I wrangled Zoe’s busy schedule.

At 4:45 pm, he called me. I knew this could not be good, so I answered immediately. Apparently she was jumping off a tall structure and landed on the top of her foot. I can barely write that. They gave her an ice pack and sent her on her way (oh, waivers). And so, we took a trip to after-hours Urgent Care where they took an x-ray and diagnosed two metatarsal fractures in her foot. We’ll be headed to an orthopedic pediatric doctor next week, but for now, it’s crutches and a temporary cast–and phantom itching in her heel last night under that cast that she couldn’t stop obsessing about.

I was afraid she’d wake today with pain, but not so much (may that continue!) Wish us luck. And back to that animal thing, let’s end with Ella’s artwork on those masks, and lament that leaping like a cat is on pause for now. Thank goodness for how quickly children heal, and as I told Ella, this is NOT the worst thing, so let’s do what’s required and move past it. There will no doubt be leaping in her future! And in the meantime, maybe I’ll talk her into an Etsy store to sell masks!