Stairs and Pools

In the last three days or so, I have seen Hannah commit herself to being an upright walker more determinedly than since she first started taking steps. What I mean by that is, she is choosing to walk rather than crawl. (For example, she chose to walk over here just now to grab at my key pad and make me type $@DDdk49e instead of whatever I was trying to say.)

Additionally, she has become quite adept at climbing up our stairs--and seems to enjoy it really. This is (of course) good and bad. It is good that she is stronger and more mobile. It is bad that she is actively looking to climb higher, raising the possibilities of falling farther.

Let me tell you a story about that . . .

Friday afternoon, I picked up the girls and brought them home after Sarah's elementary school let out. Normal stuff. But I hadn't yet seated the knowledge in my brain that Hannah is a climber now. So, I let her roam a bit while I put bookbags away, checked email, straightened up the house a bit from the morning's rush to get out the door. I realized that I didn't hear her, but that isn't always bad, (Though, admittedly, it usually is . . . and usually signals that she's currently tearing up paper and eating it in some corner somewhere, or pulling out endless tissues from the magic tissue box, or pulling all the diapers out of a pack and littering the floor with them. You get the idea.)

So, I walked around the corner and saw that Sarah and Grace were watching some afternoon TV. But Hannah wasn't there.

And then it dawned on me.

I had not blocked the base of the stairs when I walked in the door--because I had not trained myself yet that this is the first thing I need to do when I walk in the house with Hannah.

I dashed up the stairs (thanking my stars that she wasn't teetering on the edge somewhere) and headed where I figured she'd be. Sure enough, she was half a house away and eight feet up from where I started, in Sarah's room pulling markers out of a plastic bin. She was safe.

But, man! The problems that could have happened! And entirely my mistake. I won't be making THAT one again.

*****

About Hannah's decision to head straight to Sarah's room.

I've seen her do this several times when she is upstairs crawling around with us at bath time. She invariably makes a bee line to Sarah's desk and starts pulling open the bin's plastic drawers that hold Sarah's markers. 

I'm no doctor, but this tells me that Hannah has developed memory and visualization skills enough to mark a place she cannot see and remember a sequence of choices that aren't immediately in front of her. In short, her brain is now developed enough to map her environment and "project" spaces and items outside of her visual field.

Good stuff!

*****

In other news, it's mid March! Do you know where your Bracket is?

I am going to put together my typical Bracket group at work this year--a small group of dedicated friends who like to throw in a few bucks to spice up the fun of the NCAA basketball tournament. To avoid hassles on everyone's part, I'll be utilizing the CBS web-based bracket manager system that I've leaned on in the past. (I toyed with the notion of crafting my own web site this year, but it would be unnecessary work and would demand that participants add yet another user name and password to their already complicated lives.)

So, if you are reading this and want to participate, shoot me an email. I've have the sign-in information ready by Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. You'll have until noon Thursday to log into the site and make your picks. It doesn't take long to remember your information from past years or to start a new account if you are new to my Pool.

So, give it a whirl if you're interested.

Talk to you again tomorrow.