Climber

I think I've mentioned in passing that Laurel really likes to climb. She doesn't stand or walk yet, but that doesn't stop her from climbing.

She likes to climb stairs, although she doesn't have many indoor opportunities since we live in a one-story house. But part of our yard is on a slope, with a long flight of steps leading up the hillside, and lately she has been enjoying crawling up them. I stay immediately behind her when she's on the initial section of steps, because it is made out of sharp-edged cut flagstone with a brick path below. But I don't tail her quite as closely when she gets a little higher up the hill, because then the steps are made of wooden beams with dirt risers, and even if she fell over backward she wouldn't be badly hurt.

In fact, once she's safely off the stone steps, I pull weeds as she climbs. I enjoy the challenge. I do keep moving uphill with her, and she crawls quickly, so I have to pull the weeds on the fly, like grabbing the brass ring on the carousel; then once I've got the weeds in hand, I try to toss them into one of several strategically-located weed piles. It's good exercise, too, climbing stairs while bent over or squatting -- especially because I do it repeatedly. Once we reach the top, we turn around, and I hold Laurel's hands while she stands up and hops back down from step to step. Once we reach the bottom, I let go of her hands, and she usually chooses to crawl right back up again.

Indoors she tries to climb onto everything, no matter how unsteady she is, no matter how unsteady the item is! She climbs onto end tables and nightstands, and onto the open door of the dishwasher. She stands up on the seats of wheeled ride-on toys, including her scooter. And lately she's been crawling into the bathroom, pulling herself to a standing position using the toilet, climbing onto Isaac's step-stool, and clambering onto the lid of the toilet. Fortunately it has always been closed.