Another New Skill–Climbing Down

This is one of Mason’s favorite places to play.  He loves looking out the window especially to find animals.  We have our living room arranged so that once he’s up here he can climb from couch to footstools to blue chair and back.  Until recently this meant mommy or a sibling spent a large portion of the day on the floor following him along the furniture to keep him from falling off and to help him down when he was finished.  It isn’t the most exciting activity for us but it means a lot to Mason. 

This week we have been working on helping Mason climb up on stacked pillows to get on the furniture, which is still a tricky business and I don’t have pictures at the moment.  We’ve also been showing him how to climb down onto pillows. 

He decided that was pretty easy.  He now only needs a single pillow to get down.  He’s gotten so good at it in just a few days that we no longer feel the need to stay beside him when he’s on the furniture.  We lay a few pillows on the floor and are free to go into other rooms or do things as needed, knowing Mason will climb down just fine by himself. 

This might seem like a small thing to some.  To us it is huge.  Mason will be 18 months old next week.  Most children his age are climbing up and down and able to have some measure of freedom and independence in where they want to sit or play.  Our goal is to encourage Mason to be every bit as independent as a child who is not paralyzed from the waist down.  We want to help him discover ways that work for him safely without risking too many broken bones.  Much of it has to wait until he’s old enough to understand how to safely manipulate his body.  But this is a step in the right direction!