The Light and the Quiet

There was a covered-dish social in our new neighborhood tonight, at a covered patio area we're all obligated to pay money to be part of and maintain. People were friendly and, occasionally, even engaging. Many had either kids or dogs at the event, and baby thought that was a fine idea. She pet several of the dogs, chatted with a toddler peer or two, and generally ran around fast enough and often enough to tire out her already tired mom and dad. The scariest part was that the patio had no lights, or walls, and baby repeatedly walked in the semi-darkness toward the edge of the concrete slab as fast as she could, neither sensing nor seeing the danger. Though the edge of the patio verged on no great precipice, baby could have been injured taking a tumble nonetheless.) I was glad when we were back home, in the light and the quiet.

Dealing With Gravity

Including the last home we lived in, a transitional abode that we rented for a few months, baby has lived in three houses. All three have been two-stories; all three have had staircases. We have made a variety of efforts to protect baby from the perils presented by the stairs: gates, constant surveillance, and lessons at climbing and descending stairs (starting when she was about nine months). Today, for the first time, she climbed all the way up and all the way down without any nudges or hand-holding. I maintained a distance of about eighteen inches, in order to catch her if need be, but she did all of the physical and mental work, guiding herself with one hand on the wall on the way down. She knew, even before I began clapping, that getting down on her own was an accomplishment. While today represented an important milestone, there is a lot of teaching and learning on the stairs still to do.