What goes up...must come down

Lesson #67 for Wyatt: Just because something is taller than you, doesn't mean you should use it as support to stand up. Laundry baskets? nope. Other children? not a good idea. He pulls himself up on any object that is higher than he is, whether or not it is steady. Last week, he pulled up on his exersaucer and began working his way around it to play with the various toys. I looked on wondering how this scenario was going to play itself out. The momentum got the exersaucer spinning and his little legs just couldn't keep up. The next thing I know, he was flying backward, legs up in the air. It was quite comical and I find so much humor in watching these little episodes play out (once I know he's ok, of course). The reaction is usually the same - wide-eyed surprise, followed by a quick look around to see if anyone else observed and to gauge their reaction to see if the fall actually hurt him as much as he thinks it did. It's not a normal day at our house if we don't have at least one loud crash, bang catastrophe. Just give him a few minutes and he can get himself into all kinds of trouble.

Then there's the "accidental freestanding", as Dayven calls it, where for just a brief second or two, he's standing all alone, not touching anything. As soon as he realizes it, he frantically grabs at the closest object and clings to it for dear life or simply plops back down on his bottom. He has so much fun standing up, he'd rather do that than anything else, even sleep. Often when he is supposed to be sleeping, I'll hear little noises and peek in his room and find him standing up, peering over the top of his crib. I'm constantly telling him to lay back down and go to sleep. I'm just waiting for the day when he launches himself out of his wooden prison.

His latest dilemma is how to successfully and efficiently (by efficiently, I mean with the least amount of physical effort) get from one object to the next. I mean, really, if you are already standing up by the ottoman, it is so inconvenient to sit down, crawl over to the coffee table and pull yourself back up to standing again. Surely there must be a better way. Today I watched as Wyatt stood holding on to the ottoman, sizing up the distance to the coffee table. From my vantage point, I could tell it was about 4 feet and there was not a chance he would make it, but he wasn't going to give up that easily. I watched him work his way to the edge of the ottoman, stretch his arm as far as he could while still holding the ottoman with the other hand, then fling himself in vain in the general direction of the coffee table. He must have known chances were good he wasn't going to make it because he squeezed his eyes shut tight while he was doing it, as if bracing himself for the big plunge. Sure enough, he missed it by a long shot and did a face plant into the rug. Blood curdling screams ensued. You'd think he would learn, but he just keeps getting right back up on the horse.