Babies and Stairs

My mom taught me to teach babies to use stairs as soon as they were mobile. Before my husband and I had stairs of our own, my mom would take our first child, and then our second, and lovingly and slowly show them how to go down (feet first) and up the stairs at my parents house. My mom did not like gates. When our third child became mobile, we were living in our current house with stairs. Ignoring my mom's advice and her example, we immediately got a gate. The gate was returned to the store the same day it was put up. My active 2 year old, wanting to go downstairs, scaled the gate. My motherly intuition told me that having a 2 and 3 year old climbing over a gate at the top of the stairs was more dangerous than teaching a baby to use the stairs.

I followed my mom's example and taught my little one to go up and down the stairs. My fourth and fifth children have been taught to use the stairs in the same way. We have only had one minor tumble halfway down the stairs, when I was still learning the importance of vigilance with my third child. Surprisingly once my children have learned how to use the stairs, they stay away from them unless they need to get somewhere. I do not know if the attraction to the stairs disappears because they are not forbidden to use them or because the stair climbing feat has been conquered.

Things I Heard and Saw Today

Theresa: "Well, then I'm never eating my dinner."
Immediately after saying this, she picked up her fork and finished everything on her plate.

Bernadette: "Mommy, do you know who has a lighthouse?"
Me: "Who?"
Bernadette: "God does. It is the moon and the stars."

Embarrassment

A few months ago, as my children and I were strolling through Michael's they started to talk about whiskey. I was mortified and told them to stop talking. After leaving the store, I asked them where they had heard about it. They informed me that Captain Haddock drinks it. I told them it was not a nice drink (I've never tasted it) and not something I wanted them discussing.

Today we were at Michael's once again and my previous admonishment had obviously gone in one ear and out the other. My daughter, who touches everything when we go shopping, took a fake book off of the shelf and stated, "Oh, this is like the book in Tintin." Then in her loudest speaking voice she proceeded to say, "This is where Captain Haddock keeps his whiskey. It makes a pretty good hiding place for whiskey." A young mother in the aisle turned to her little daughter and said, "Come let's go." I felt like crawling into the book my daughter was holding and hiding. Needless to say, I had another discussion with my daughter about whiskey. I wonder what it is about Michael's that makes my children discuss Captain Haddock's downfall.