Don't Give Him the Keys to the Car

This is perhaps the type of thing a parent should not publish, and perhaps I won’t... It’s one of those stories that you only tell when your child is grown and moved out of the house and is obviously not brain-damaged. Well, now I have to tell you, don't I? I wrote this in my journal yesterday:

Today is laundry day. Tuesdays usually are. However, the Growing With Mom program was cancelled this morning due to ice, so I thought I’d get more than just laundry done. I vacuumed and blogged and cleaned up the kitchen all before Luke’s first nap. He sat happily in the middle of the living room floor with his red truck and some toys the entire time I buzzed around him. He even smiled and swatted at the vacuum cleaner.

Then just a few minutes before Luke’s naptime, I went to the basement to start the first load of laundry. Apparently once I left the room Luke decided he also wanted to go to the basement to do laundry, and followed me...down the stairs.

He just made it down the two stairs into the entrance before he decided stairs weren’t all they were cracked up to be. I heard a “Ka-thump-thump”, and then a wail. My heart dissolved inside me as I tore back up the stairs and nearly tripped over my son in the entrance. I swooped him up into a hug and he stopped crying immediately. Then he pulled my hair, as if he was ready for another go-round. The only sign of his “Stair Mastering” is a red line on his chin where he must have hit the edge of a step on what I am sure was an ungraceful tumble down the stairs. It's time to get a gate.

Luke is definitely getting around now. The other day he pulled all the cables out of the back of the VCR. The day before that he got wedged between the couch and the end table and became stuck. He has now gotten into my crocheting, the bookshelf, my camera drawer, and...down the stairs. When my Dad heard this story he said, "You better make sure and hide the keys to the car!"

“I’m gonna master those stairs. ‘Cuz I’m the stair-Master! I’m gonna show those stairs who’s boss. When I’m done with those stairs they won’t know which way is up!” from the movie Shrek.