The Stairs

Anna loves to play on the stairs. She figured out how to climb them just after she started walking. So we encouraged daily practice since it was the closest she was to crawling at the time (she started crawling about five/six weeks later). It didn't take her long to pick it up and she was making it to the top in record time only a short time after she started. Because it became such a favorite activity, once she got the hang of it, we started blocking off the stairs so she could only crawl up them when we initiated the activity.

We tried to show her how to crawl down the stairs but she doesn't like this activity as much - I guess she's not as confident about going backwards. But when we were at our friends house in January, she watched her friend Julia go down the stairs on her toosh and she quickly imitated her. Somedays she'll actually climb up the stairs just so she can come down them. She's like a little olympian training for the stair event!

We've been teaching her how to walk up the stairs by holding onto the banister, but she's not ready for it. But now that she's had a chance to practice walking up onto her gym mat and then back down she's beginning to make the connection that she can do the same on the stairs. Of course, the gym mat is a lot lower so it's good training.

And just like all of the other obstacles Anna has overcome, she seems to like to work them out on her own. Last night after I witnessed her go up and down on her mat with ease and very little though, I caught her attempting to hang onto the banister and walk up the first couple of stairs (I know, I know, bad mommy for not having the gate up!). I watched her negotiate the maneuver careful not to fall. And although she didn't follow through, she did the next best thing - she crawled up the stair but instead of putting a knee down first, she put a foot down - kind of equivalent to a bear crawl rather than a regular crawl on the floor. So although she was still using all fours, she figured out the next level. I'm sure she'll be walking up the stairs long before my prediction of summer! I better lock the gate!