I love the stairs in our home - the first time I walked up them, they felt different . . . after seeing a few more homes, I figured out why - they are almost twice the width of the steps in all of the other homes in our neighborhood . . . but when I saw them, I didn't think about stairs and kids.
Of course, when we moved in Marlie was only15 months old, and had never climbed steps, so everyone had mild heart attacks for a few weeks every time she would go near them. At some point though, you have to let go or your child will never learn to climb steps. She has fallen twice in 2 years - once when she was 16 months, 4 steps up she went head over heels to the floor . . .and once when she was almost 2, she was about 1o steps up and Sota rushed past her and she flew down on her bottom (we heard "Sota pushed me down the steps" for a good week!).
Well, last week I finally decided to let go - Sam has been trying to climb a few steps for a couple weeks, and I've let her. Last week I just let her rip and she climbed all 14 steps in 28 seconds (I totally timed it!). So when we go upstairs to the play room, I've been letting her make her own way upstairs.
This morning Sam made her way over to the steps and I let her go about 7 steps up pretending I wasn't watching . . . and then went over and told her to climb down. She hadn't done it yet, but Marlie has been showing her how . . . she stared at me and climbed up 1 - I told her sharply to come back down . . .AND SHE DID!!!!!!!!!! Down 8 steps on her stomach, touching each step with both feet as she scooted down!!!! Needless to say she was VERY proud of herself - so I snapped a pic of her big smile . . . and Marlie cheered her on as she always does when Sam does something new :)
No comments:
Post a Comment