Stairs, Go Backwards

Our day started off like a normal post-Mommy work day. That means that Mommy had to work late and so, of course, Ian woke up early (6:17am today!). Mommy was soooo tired that we just played around the house this morning. Ian obliged and took a short nap about 8:20. It only lasted about 40 minutes though, so he got a snack while Mommy rested a bit more on the couch. And what a mess!!!! Fruit bars are always super messy!

He was pretty happy with his mess though. He enjoyed chewing on his (now fruit bar flavored) cup after he was done with his snack.

After a bath, Ian immediately found some of his favorite toys and walked around the apartment for a while. He loves to carry his spatula in one hand, his remote (we don't have the TV it goes to anymore) in the other hand, and carry something in his mouth. One of his recent favorites is the mast to his Veggie Tales pirate ship. Of course, we watch him carefully, but he has yet to hurt himself. In fact, he actually maintains his balance better if he walks with something in his mouth and both hands. We get a kick out of seeing which three (or four!) items he is going to choose for his little treks around the apartment.

After a while, Mommy forced herself to wake up enough to get Ian out of theose and loaded him in his trike and set off towards the mail boxes. I figured if nothing else, we could go look at the pool or something. In my sleep deprived state, that actually turned out to be a great idea. The area by the mail boxes and back behind the pool was nice and shaded, so Ian could crawl around all he wanted without Mommy having to worry about hot concrete or sun in his eyes. He had so much fun going up and down the steps by the mail boxes.

There was some good shaded grassy area nearby too, so he walked around there for quite a while.

He is getting so much better at walking! He actually prefers it to crawling most of the time now.

Here's a few video clips I got of Ian playing today. I apologize in advance for jumpiness of the camera. I was trying to maintain a good balance between keeping Ian safe and catching his stairs ability on video! We have worked a lot on going up and down stairs safely, and Ian is really starting to master the concept.

The first video shows perfectly how well he does on stairs now. I have been trying to teach him how to go backwards down stairs for a while, so I was shocked when he turned around backwards on his own when I told him to ("stairs, go backwards" is a mantra we say often). We have been practicing that for a while (thanks again Naybah C for loaning us your stairs!), but today was the first time I saw him do it the right way on his own!



In this video, Ian climbed up the stairs and then showed off his little hermit crab crawling (going sideways) for just a sec. He then tried to go back down the stairs but had a bit of trouble, so he decided against that! It was funny to see him avoiding the stairs after that.



This video shows how well Ian is walking now. Over the past weekend, he really has transitioned from crawling to walking as much as possible! He can turn around now without falling down and can walk a pretty good distance. He definitely tells those stairs "no!" too. He wasn't gonna try them again just yet!

We actually came back to the apartment in the middle of all that playing to get the camera. We also had to stop for a drink! Ian sure loves those Capri Suns.

His favorite part of a Capri Sun is pulling out the straw! They really need to come with two or three straws each...

Well, little toddler, you are toddling away so good! We are very proud of all the skills you are learning and are especially glad you will pass stair safety class! Mommy is THRILLED to have found a new way to wear you out for nap time and I know you are so happy to have a new, shaded place to play!