Stairs & Gates
Last Tuesday, I was sitting on the bottom of our main staircase putting on my shoes. Birdie was crawling around near me, and then I suddenly realized that she was on the same step where I was seated, two up from the bottom. Given that she'd never even gone up one step on her own before, this was rather surprising. I quickly moved to spot her in case she toppled over. I was then able to induce Birdie to climb all the way to the landing with only minimal assistance on my part by putting my phone a few stairs above her. My assistance was mostly in the form of an occasional hand on her bottom to keep her from slipping backwards. She did all the climbing herself.
The week before her staircase experimentation, Birdie had started pulling herself to a standing position. This started on the sofa in her bedroom, but quickly expanded throughout the house, particularly on the coffee table in the living room. She repeated all of these activities throughout the Thanksgiving holiday, with my mother-in-law in particular happy to provide additional spotting. One of Birdie's new favorite things to do is knocking things off the coffee table. She hasn't quite gotten to walking around the coffee table (or the sofa, or the radiator covers) with her hands on it for balance, but it's clearly imminent.
We had already started putting baby gates up due to her crawling before this new jump forward in mobility occurred. M had put one on the second floor at the top of the stairs the week before, which let Birdie crawl around most of the upstairs safely. The day before Birdie climbed the stairs, M put another one in our kitchen at the top of the stairs to the basement. This gate provides some redundancy in case she slips past the french doors that separate the dining room and the living room. We still have one baby gate remaining to put at the bottom of the main staircase. We may need that sooner than we thought! We also have a lot of baby proofing equipment that we'll need to install a little sooner than expected, mostly furniture anchors and cabinet locks.
At this rate, I suspect Birdie will be walking before she turns one, which is less than two months away!
The week before her staircase experimentation, Birdie had started pulling herself to a standing position. This started on the sofa in her bedroom, but quickly expanded throughout the house, particularly on the coffee table in the living room. She repeated all of these activities throughout the Thanksgiving holiday, with my mother-in-law in particular happy to provide additional spotting. One of Birdie's new favorite things to do is knocking things off the coffee table. She hasn't quite gotten to walking around the coffee table (or the sofa, or the radiator covers) with her hands on it for balance, but it's clearly imminent.
We had already started putting baby gates up due to her crawling before this new jump forward in mobility occurred. M had put one on the second floor at the top of the stairs the week before, which let Birdie crawl around most of the upstairs safely. The day before Birdie climbed the stairs, M put another one in our kitchen at the top of the stairs to the basement. This gate provides some redundancy in case she slips past the french doors that separate the dining room and the living room. We still have one baby gate remaining to put at the bottom of the main staircase. We may need that sooner than we thought! We also have a lot of baby proofing equipment that we'll need to install a little sooner than expected, mostly furniture anchors and cabinet locks.
At this rate, I suspect Birdie will be walking before she turns one, which is less than two months away!