But now we face the bigger challenge. Yesterday she officially climbed UP the smaller flight of stairs from the family room all by herself! Good job Heidi! Nice skill development! I discovered her practicing this new skill and repeating her performance this morning, with encouragement from her brother.

Why is this a challenge? Only because the “climbing stairs” skill comes months before the “climbing down stairs” skill–which means the former is unsafe when not closely supervised. That means I have to keep a gate at the top of the stairs when upstairs, and at the bottom of the stairs when downstairs. And I only have one gate. And every adult in the house gets annoyed with the gate already, and it’s only up when I’m upstairs and Heidi’s not in her high chair.

Funny how exciting and frustrating one simple accomplishment can be, no?