Climbing to New Heights
Mark this one down in the baby book. March 23, 2007: The boys can climb on the couch. It’s a proud day. It’s the day when I officially stop worrying about their climbing skills, and start worrying about them falling off the furniture.
Not that I was ever worried about their climbing skills. While other children might shy away from climbing stairs until days before their second birthday, the boys never showed any fear of climbing stairs. Sometimes, when I’m desperate to work on the computer or at least look up some sports scores, I’ll take the boys with me into the basement. I’ll sit at the computer while they wander the concrete floor. At first, they just scour for things the cats haven’t eaten yet. But, within minutes, they’re on the stairs, scaling one at a time and working on their upper body strength. This has been going on for at least six months,* although they’re now getting quick enough to be halfway up the stairs before I notice.
Going down the stairs is a different matter. They’re only now figuring out how to climb down stairs backwards, reversing the motion used for climbing up. Abbie never figured out that trick. She would stand at the top of the stairs, staring into the abyss and waiting for someone to help her down. Before she learned how to step down, she learned to make us come faster by progressively leaning further over the edge. Thankfully, the boys adopted their safer technique of going down backwards; before this epiphany, their technique was holding one foot over the edge until someone picked them up.
There’s a big height difference between stairs and a couch. The boys needed an intermediate object, something bigger than a stair, but still small enough for their chubby legs to overcome. At about a foot off the ground, the shelf in our entertainment center filled this role.
This shelf used to be for storing media like CD’s and VHS tapes.** About the time Abbie started dumping media on the floor, we moved them to higher ground and put the stereo on the shelf. About the time Abbie started pushing buttons and hanging on the open CD tray, we moved the stereo to higher ground. Now this cubbyhole is the perfect size for little men to play in: It’s close enough to the ground to climb into, far enough off the ground to give the thrill of climbing, big enough to comfortably fit a mini man, small enough that a brother can’t fit too, and, most importantly, short enough to not cause serious harm when someone fall on the ground after fighting to get into it.
After honing their skills at the one-foot level, they advanced to the two-feet level with the couch. Not only can they climb on the couch cushion, but they can also climb on the couch back, giving them a good four-feet of appendage-breaking elevation.
It’s partially my fault for encouraging them. A few days ago, I discovered that they like being on the couch. When they’d get fussy and I’d get desperate, I’d set them on the couch with me, and they’d have fun march around the cushions and climbing on me to reach the couch back. They must have decided that the couch was too exciting to wait until they had my help to climb onto it. Therefore, they figured out how to do it by themselves.
This opens up a new world to them. They can now reach things I’d hidden from them at higher levels. They can reach the cats on the couch back, or a glass of water, or my VHS tape collection. Their baby books are also up there.
* By “this,” I mean the stair climbing. The irresponsible parenting has been going on for almost three years now.
** It’s an old entertainment center.
Not that I was ever worried about their climbing skills. While other children might shy away from climbing stairs until days before their second birthday, the boys never showed any fear of climbing stairs. Sometimes, when I’m desperate to work on the computer or at least look up some sports scores, I’ll take the boys with me into the basement. I’ll sit at the computer while they wander the concrete floor. At first, they just scour for things the cats haven’t eaten yet. But, within minutes, they’re on the stairs, scaling one at a time and working on their upper body strength. This has been going on for at least six months,* although they’re now getting quick enough to be halfway up the stairs before I notice.
Going down the stairs is a different matter. They’re only now figuring out how to climb down stairs backwards, reversing the motion used for climbing up. Abbie never figured out that trick. She would stand at the top of the stairs, staring into the abyss and waiting for someone to help her down. Before she learned how to step down, she learned to make us come faster by progressively leaning further over the edge. Thankfully, the boys adopted their safer technique of going down backwards; before this epiphany, their technique was holding one foot over the edge until someone picked them up.
There’s a big height difference between stairs and a couch. The boys needed an intermediate object, something bigger than a stair, but still small enough for their chubby legs to overcome. At about a foot off the ground, the shelf in our entertainment center filled this role.
This shelf used to be for storing media like CD’s and VHS tapes.** About the time Abbie started dumping media on the floor, we moved them to higher ground and put the stereo on the shelf. About the time Abbie started pushing buttons and hanging on the open CD tray, we moved the stereo to higher ground. Now this cubbyhole is the perfect size for little men to play in: It’s close enough to the ground to climb into, far enough off the ground to give the thrill of climbing, big enough to comfortably fit a mini man, small enough that a brother can’t fit too, and, most importantly, short enough to not cause serious harm when someone fall on the ground after fighting to get into it.
After honing their skills at the one-foot level, they advanced to the two-feet level with the couch. Not only can they climb on the couch cushion, but they can also climb on the couch back, giving them a good four-feet of appendage-breaking elevation.
It’s partially my fault for encouraging them. A few days ago, I discovered that they like being on the couch. When they’d get fussy and I’d get desperate, I’d set them on the couch with me, and they’d have fun march around the cushions and climbing on me to reach the couch back. They must have decided that the couch was too exciting to wait until they had my help to climb onto it. Therefore, they figured out how to do it by themselves.
This opens up a new world to them. They can now reach things I’d hidden from them at higher levels. They can reach the cats on the couch back, or a glass of water, or my VHS tape collection. Their baby books are also up there.
* By “this,” I mean the stair climbing. The irresponsible parenting has been going on for almost three years now.
** It’s an old entertainment center.
posted by Matt at
11:31 PM
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