Today I heard John say, "Neigh! Neigh!" I turned around to see him riding poor, long suffering Oliver.
I am trying to teach John to use the stairs. We now live in a three-story townhouse and carrying a heavy toddler (and laundry or groceries simultaneously) gets old fast. But John's temperament is simply not one of adventure and I'm having difficulty getting him even to want to try the stairs. John practices going up the stairs several times per day, but it tries my patience because he is so slow that it takes two to three minutes, during which time I am saying, "Upstairs! Upstairs!" to the tune of "Mush! Mush!" Every few steps John stops, stands tall, and claps congratulations to himself.
Going downstairs is like pulling teeth. John doesn't seem to show fear or tears, but he simply won't go downstairs either on his stomach or his bottom. I got him to complete going down the stairs one time and it took something like ten minutes of my constant encouragement.
Any tips on teaching stairs are welcomed, although I suspect this will simply require patience and time.
For going down stairs I can take the wheels off of his red race car and replace them with ski's. I think we can beat the 10 min record no problem.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the playing horsie on Oliver story...I hope you don't mind me sharing one with you on your site.
ReplyDeleteWhen Emma was about 8 months old and just learning to crawl, our friends were visiting from Idaho with their children (our God-children). Our God-son, Alan (then 20 months old), upon seeing Emma on her hands and knees crawling, ran over and proceeded to sit on her for a horsie ride! She of course collapsed from his weight and had the biggest question on her face. We couldn't help but laugh as we jumped to her rescue.
Cats-as-horsies is an excellent game! Two of our cats are much too small to "ride" (under 7 lbs.), but Nunzio more than makes up for it. He's wonderfull patient and Oliver seems the same!
ReplyDeleteAbout the stairs, I think time and patience is about right. Our DS learned to go upstairs when he was 7-8 months. It was a full YEAR before he would go down them. He'd walk down holding hands at about 12 months, but it was until 19 or 20 months that he would scoot down independently. Nothing we did to encourage him seemed to really hurry the process along. He just needed to do it when he felt totally ready.
Once John takes the plunge, though, your life will feel so free! I'm relieved I won't be juggling two babies up and down the stairs at once. :-)