Saturday, October 3rd. Caroline is 10 months and 1 week old. Since she has been crawling (for the past month), she has spent a lot of time at the bottom of the stairs. She crawls over to the first stair, stands up and often brings a toy or maybe a sock to play with. She lifts her leg in an attempt to climb the stair, but has never been successful. On this day, however, she apparently decided she knew how to climb stairs- and boy did she know how!
I leave the baby gate open. She can’t climb the stairs, so there hasn’t been a reason to close it yet.
On this day, she crawled over to the stairs as she normally does. I was actually keeping a close eye on her, because the night before daddy had helped her get her knees up onto the first stair and sit on it. I had a feeling she was going to try and do it again. So, I watched and listened to her as I made breakfast in the kitchen.
I was putting cream cheese on my bagel. I turned to look at her and she was still standing there. I turned back to finish spreading the cream cheese, heard some movement. By the time I could turn my head back around she was gone. “Holy sh*t, where is she!?!”, I thought as I ran over to the stairs. I was expecting to see that she’d gone into the living room, but my gut told me to go to the stairs.
She was halfway up the stairs already! I could not believe my eyes. She was climbing so fast, and so well. Two knees up, and then she’d stand to her feet. She’d reach for the next stair, two knees up, two feet up, and repeat. I stayed close by just in case. She didn’t need me. To my amazement, she just kept going. All the way up.
I’ve often said, that I feel like she waits to try something until she already knows how to do it. She watches and learns, takes it all in, and then decides to put her learning into practice. It is absolutely amazing to see. I compare it to when I was a teenager. My sister was learning how to drive 4 years before me. I sat in the car as she practiced. I watched and learned. I listened to my dad’s comments and advice. When it came to be my turn I already knew how and just had to get a feel for it. This is what Caroline seems to do on a regular basis. I love that she seems so calculated with her learning.
So, she knows how to climb stairs now! Just like that. Overnight, she’s mastered the skill! I immediately started showing her how to go down the stairs. Feet first, belly down. It is still confusing to her, but she’ll get it soon enough. In the meantime, she is doing lots of climbing. Just yesterday, she climbed up onto the dishwasher door. OOOOH, Caroline….