July 6, 2005
I'm becoming incredibly crappy at updating this thing. Must do better.
Zeke has now started summer preschool. You can tell because he brought home a whole new set of germs from his new set of friends. He came down with a fever of 102 the day we were supposed to go to the fireworks, and then the rest of us started getting scratchy throats and runny noses about a day later. The good news is that it's a full week and a half before we are supposed to go on vacation, so we should all be feeling tip-top by then.
We did not cancel the fireworks outing, incidentally. There's no way I am going to pump up my three-year-old for an entire week about how we are going downtown to see the big fireworks show, and make plans, and pack the cooler, and even find the kids some cute red, white, and blue outfits, and then cancel at the last minute because of the sniffles, fever or no fever. We gave Zeke Tylenol, he perked up, and we went anyway. It was a hoot. Stazi camped out in the baby backpack for most of the evening, and Zeke had a good time waving around glow sticks and listening to the battery-powered radio we took with us. He also got to share some of my Frappucino, since it was a special night and I was feeling generous.
Stazi fell down the stairs the other day. That was kind of exciting. We put away the baby gate a few weeks ago, because she figured out how to navigate around it, and after the third or fourth time I found her playing happily at the top of the stairs, I decided the gate had become more trouble than it was worth. I then spent the next few weeks holding my breath, waiting for the inevitable fall. When it happened, it was pretty scary for Stazi and for us, but she is mostly unharmed. She did look a little like she went through a couple rounds with a prizefighter, but the bruises are already almost gone. And I've noticed she's taking more care on the steps now, so it was a good learning experience. And good for Mommy's heart, too. Nothing like hearing your 17-month-old hurtling down the stairs headfirst to get the ol' adrenaline pumping.
Posted by Jan at July 6, 2005 2:16 PM
Comments
Applause!!!!
My sister's house is Baby-Gate-Land, and it's just rediculous. They have a split-level house, with four staircases (yes, what idiot designer in 1962 thought that was a good idea?), and have gates at the tops and bottoms of two of the stairs, and at one end of each of the others, for a grand total of 6 (yes, SIX) babygates. Needless to say, it drives me nuts to visit, constantly flinging my bum-hip leg over one gate or another as I move from room to room. Here's the funny part: they didn't get all the gates fully installed until the baby was Stazi's age.(BTW, the baby is her second child, and his third) I asked them the usual parent-with-experience question: why don't you just teach the baby to go up and down the stairs safely, and put gates where you absolutely need to (the basement stairs)? Whatever response I received just made no sense to me. I explained my reasoning, which was exactly the same as yours, really. One fall and the kid figures it out. It's a learning experience, and a fall down six little steps onto a carpet couldn't hurt that much. Yes, both my kids fell down our stairs- exactly once each. Hmmm...
Posted by: bibiana Powell at July 11, 2005 12:44 PM