School hasn’t even started yet and Atti’s already making leaps in progress. Look at that little diaper booty going down the stairs by his own steam!
He’s fallen down those stairs just once, and since then he’s kept his distance. He was actually way more interested in playing with the baby gate than the stairs, so we finally took it down and just let him police himself.
Then the other day I saw him crawl over and put his hands down on the second step. I was so surprised I asked him, “Atti, do you want to go down the stairs?” and he responded with his typical, “Oh, OK.” That’s how he answers everything he means to say yes to, which is especially funny when it’s something he asks for. “Oos?” “Juice? Are you asking for juice?” “Oh, OK.” As if I’m really twisting his arm and he finally caves in to my juice pushing.
Anyway, I showed him how to back into the stair, how to move one leg at a time, how to shift his weight from one side of his body to the other, and before long we were both chanting, “One leg, two leg, back up, one leg, two leg, back up” all the way down the staircase before climbing back up and starting again.
Sometimes Atti would cheat and stick his legs out straight behind him to slide down the stairs on his belly like a seal, but by the time we finally wore him out he was doing most of the work all by himself. And shouting “BY MYSELF!” to make sure I knew it.
Oh I know it, buddy. And I’m thrilled and nervous at the same time.