Her First Tumble

Our loyal readers may remember that we started teaching Adelaida how to go up and down the stairs about two months ago. She caught on very quickly and soon was going up and down the stairs like a pro.

As Adelaida got better at going up and down stairs, Dale and I became more complaisant about watching her when she was on the stairs. We still didn't let her go up or down all by herself, but sometimes went up at our normal pace while Adelaida slowly made her way up the stairs behind us. And we never did put a gate at the top of the stairs.

Our staircase is set up very nicely in that it has three landings, separated by three to five steps each; we reasoned that if she were to fall, she would fall at most five steps before getting to a landing, which would probably stop her fall. We also kept the foam pad at the bottom of the stairs so that, if she did fall, she would fall onto a foam pad rather than the tile.

About a week ago, I was working at the computer in our bedroom while Adelaida was playing in the bedroom next to me. She became bored with the toys I had for her in the bedroom and soon crawled over to the door. She played with the door for a while (she loves to open and close doors), then crawled through the door toward the staircase. Our bedroom door is directly at the top of the staircase, and Adelaida sat on the floor outside the bedroom in such a way that she could lean forward and see me, or lean back to make me hidden behind the wall. We played peek-a-boo like this for a while, Adelaida giggling every time she leaned in to see me.

Adelaida rolled down eight steps before stopping at a landing!

I was very aware of her sitting at the top of the staircase, but she was enjoying our peek-a-boo game and is very good at going down the stairs, so I wasn't worried. Then I heard what sounded like a bowling ball rolling down the stairs. I looked out the door, couldn't see Adelaida, and was running down the steps before she even started crying. She had fallen down the stairs, rolling down eight steps (and past one landing) before stopping at the second landing on the staircase.

After a quick check to make sure she had no broken bones, I started making funny faces and nibbling on her belly, and within a minute she was laughing and had forgotten all about the fall. She crawled back up the stairs and has since gone up and down the stairs several times without any hesitation.

Note: the picture of Adelaida on the landing is a dramatization taken later; the last thing I was thinking about when she fell was taking a picture of her!