Stair Master Ben

My little Ben is a climbing monster! From the moment he started crawling, he has been climbing.

Like any newbie crawler, his first climbing attempts were on the stairs. Our staircase has two landings on it and at first, he would only climb the two steps to the first landing. But pretty soon, that wasn't challenging enough for him; he had to master the whole entire staircase! And he did. Within the first few weeks that he had been crawling.

Extra motivation probably came from us and the attention that he received each time he crawled up the stairs. It quickly turned into a game that he plays with us. He climbs halfway up the stairs, then yells to us to make sure we know what he is doing. As soon as we see him and "yell" at him, he chuckles and scrambles up the rest of the stairs as fast as he can. Then he stops at the top, takes a seat, and turns around to laugh at us as we pick him up to bring him back down. By now, he's crawling up those stairs like an old pro. He's moved on to bigger and better things, like the ladder to the bunk beds.

I was on the computer one day and the boys were in their rooms playing. Next thing I know, Sam is telling me (with a grin) that Ben is on the top bunk. I'm all, "Noooooo. He's not on the top bunk," trying to play along with what I initially thought was a little joke that Sam was trying to pull. He calls into the bedroom, "Owen! Is Ben on the top bed with you?" Owen yells out, "Yeah!" Of course now I jump up from the computer, "He's WHAT?!?" and run into the bedroom. Sure enough, there's little Benny up on the top bunk with Owen, grinning from ear to ear.

He had climbed up there. By himself. He's only ten months old!

I pulled him down from the bunk bed and put him back on the floor. He immediately started climbing that darn ladder again. It came down the next day.

This child will climb anything. He has climbed up my body, as I sat on the floor, to get to the bottom bunk. He tries to climb out the window.

"Let me out!"

 

He has climbed up his stroller.He has climbed up his high chair. He has climbed out of the bathtub and his pool. 

"I'm not a fish, Mommy. I don't LIKE water!."

And he has even managed to climb on top of the toilet.

"But Mommy, I have a boogie!"

I do not remember Owen ever being this much of an adventurous climber. But maybe we just didn't have as many things in our apartment at the time for him to climb on. Now I'm afraid that Ben is going to turn into one of those kids that they make furniture anchors for. And wouldn't you know, of all the rooms in the house, his bedroom is the one with the wall of built-in shelves!