Last night, Dave and I were eating dinner in the living room and watching The Colbert Report, while Cate played around us happily. All of a sudden Dave said, “Um… where’s the baby?” She had been right next to me just a few seconds before, so I panicked when I realized that I had no idea where she was.
We looked around, and guess what she was doing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsGb8aMBQfIYeah. So, she learned a new trick, apparently. And almost gave her mama a heart attack to boot.
(Btw, that video? That was her fourth or fifth trip up the stairs. When we first noticed she was missing, I found her at the top of the stairs already. I brought her back down to the living room, and she immediately set off to practice her new favorite thing. I’d carry her back down, try to distract her with a toy, and “no thanks Mom, I’m off again.” Lather-rinse-repeat.)
We used to have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, but the spring on it broke because I’d accidentally banged into it while carrying the laundry basket too many times. So when we took it down to paint the baseboards a couple of weeks ago, we threw it out. I figured we had nothing to worry about since Cate had expressed mild interest in the stairs when she was about 9 months old, but hadn’t paid any attention to them since then.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that her interest in climbing the stairs might eventually resurface. But I guess I have to go buy another baby gate now. Fabulous.
Yep, I know that fear! Miss C and C-baby have yet another “trick” in common. We found a neat gate (Safety 1st brand) that uses a curved pressure point that pushes against the banister instead of having to lock it against a wall. I think it ran less than $20 so its reasonable. Miss C just peaks under it now when she is hunting the kitty or waiting on me to run back down.