“One day when sitting at the dining table with my daughter, Sephira, then two and a half years old, she commented to me, “Mama, my legs are twinkling and sparkling!” It instantly made me think of when my mother told me about how my older sister used to say “booming darkening” when she was little, talking about lightning and thunder… but this wasn’t a stormy day. When I clarified with Sephira that she had indeed said “twinkling and sparkling”, it only took me a few seconds to realize she was telling me that her legs had fallen asleep and these were the sensations she was feeling. She had been sitting on her knees during our mealtime together. Once we got her legs straightened out the twinkling and sparkling stopped. Even though she didn’t use that phrase for long, I still marvel over the fact that this was the most perfect way she could have described those sensations to me, and I’ll never be able to think about my limbs falling asleep any other way!”
Moments Contributor Effie Siverts