The Stair Master

There is nothing quite like a baby becoming mobile. Getting into the four point position and then looking at you with such pride and happiness. That first attempt at actually moving is met with great concentration, and then great anger when it all ends with a face plant into the carpet. A few, or many, hugs cuddles and comfortings later, the crawl begins to happen. I remember my daughter crawling. She used the commando style. She could pull herself along the floor, legs stretched out behind her, with amazing speed and agility. I would have challenged any well trained soldier to beat her time down the hall to the doorway when I wasn’t looking. The boys all seemed to crawl the ‘proper’ way, but I have seen many babies with all sorts of various styles of mobility. I always liked the bum scootchers best.

I thought Superbabe was going to be a bum scootcher. He just couldn’t seem to get the whole “belly” thing down. He still hates laying on his belly. Bum scootching wasn’t his thing either though. He didn’t have the strength in his arms to pull himself along the floor. A couple of therapists decided that he needed more strength in his right arm and shoulder. After about a week of pulling a hat off my head with his right arm for 5-10 min a day, he was ready to get into that four point position. Within another three days, he had found his crawl. It’s a funny sort of crawl, his right foot is planted on the floor and the left leg remains folded up beneath him. He uses his right leg to push against the floor and drags his left leg along. It works, but he often finds his left leg tangled up in the sleeper leg or his pants falling off from the fabric being drug along the floor.

Then, he discovered the stairs.

We were in this house when Levi was born. Actually, we moved in when Matthew was only 18m old. Matthew was old enough that the stairs were not an issue, and Levi was naturally cautious with them. He used to skirt around the opening for the longest time, and when he did start showing an interest, I started showing him how to scoot down backwards. It was only a matter of time before he was laughing and flying down the stairs on his belly faster than any of the older kids could possibly run them. Keegan beat him once, but he had to jump the bottom half.

Superbabe had only been moving on his own steam for about a day when he discovered the stairs. It was love at first sight. So, because he was so determined, I started trying to show him how to move backwards. It didn’t work. The kids all tried, and Mr. Man tried too. He refused to go down the way we wanted him to. In fact, he kept planting his feet and pushing with his hands and toppling over backwards. He was downright scary! That same determination that kept him alive, was now getting in the way yet again. He insisted on going down forwards.

It is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen one of my kids attempt to do, but he is now my Stair Master. He wiggles his bum up to edge until he is sitting with his feet hanging over. Then he straightens his legs and wiggles until he plops down on the stair below. Takes a moment for a smile and a giggle, and then does it over again. He refuses to climb up at all, but he would go down over and over all day long if someone was willing to go with him for that long. Any time he is set down, he heads for the stairs and I have a minor panic attack. He still doesn’t get himself into starting position without help very safely, but the stairs themselves are now mastered.

And yes, we are working on figuring out how to put up a gate.