I sleep on a bunk bed, about six feet off the ground. Under the bed is my computer desk; next to the bed is an extra-tall stepladder, which I use to get in and out of bed.
Sydney – who is, like a lot of children, physically fearless – really loves the ladder.
(There are lots of photos with this entry, so for the benefit of folks with slow connections, the rest is below the fold).
The first time Sydney tried the ladder, I watched her clamber to the first step (which is only six or seven inches off the ground). The second step is about a foot and a half above the first step. I said “well, that’s as far as she’ll get for a year or so.” A minute or so later, Sydney pulled herself up to the second step. And to the third. And then the fourth. Holy shit!
Since then, Sydney has climbed the ladder countless times (always with a grown-up ready to catch her, of course). It’s one of her favorite activities – when she comes into my bedroom, she makes a beeline for the ladder. Pull her off the top of the ladder, she’ll happily climb it again from the bottom.
What she hasn’t been able to do – despite weeks of trying – is make it from the top of the ladder to the bed. As you can see from the photo below, even from the top step, it’s still a long way to the top of the matress. Which is frustrating for Sydney, since she’d like to reach the cat that often hangs out on my bed. (Ironically, one of the bed’s chief attractions to the cat is that Sydney can’t get up there).
So the other day, we thought we’d photograph Sydney’s ladder-climb. We took photos from one angle, then we’d pull her off the ladder and take photos from another angle as she happily climbed again. (I should mention that, although I cropped him out of these photos, Sydney’s daddy Matt was always there, ready to catch Sydney.)
When we tried it with me on the bed taking pictures of Sydney’s climb from above, though, a surprising thing happened. Sydney climbed on the bed!!!!
The first thing she did once she reached the bed was come over and hug her Uncle Amp. Awwww. Matt grabbed the camera and snapped a photo.
From on the bed, I couldn’t really see how Sydney had done it, so we put her back on the floor and she repeated the performance. Check it out. Does this girl rock or what?
Sydney is usually a happy baby, but she was positively thrilled to finally reach the top of the bed. In a way, this is her first real accomplishment – the first thing she’s achieved not just through natural growth, but through continued application of effort. Damn, living with a baby is cool.
Anyhow, in this last photo she’s playing with some of my bedtime reading that she found up there. I can’t say that I enjoy The New York Review of Books half as much as Sydney appears to.
My god, I can’t believe how TALL that girl is.
Holy crap, that’s a cool baby!
That’s so damn cute. Maybe she’ll end up being a mountain climber?
Or a ninja, Anne.
Baby Ninja! creeps up ladders to slit people’s throats in their sleep, then vanish in a cloud of smoke.
damn, that’d be an awesome movie.
I am always amazed at baby strength and ability to climb. If you think of it by our adult scale that is a huge climb, a six inch step is huge when you are only 18 inches tall.
I want to eat that baby, she’s so cute!
No eating the babies.
That’s quite an accomplishment for her, Amp. Be a proud uncle!
I can’t be the only person who, for the very first time ever, has a compulsion to urge Amp to Bring His Own Bottle somewhere, can I? That must be a spam prevention measure.
Anyway, you know you’re going to have to keep your bedroom door shut when you’re not in there from now on, right Amp? Once babies start with the climbing and the jumping and the running, they never, ever stop. If she’s especially precocious, you may have to babyproof the doorknob so she can’t turn it.
It’s awesome that you managed to get such a thorough recording of that milestone. Babies are awesome. And delicious!
Mmmm, babies. Yum.
I really love babies that age. They’re so intrepid and inquisitive, like everything is a delicious adventure and the whole world is a fabulous puzzle just waiting to be solved. There’s no better cure for ennui than an 18-month-old. They make you appreciate everything.
Aw, cute baby!
Absolutely frickin’ enchanting, that’s what she is. Good uncle, Amp.
Aww… did anyone pick her clothes to match nicely with the colour of the walls and duvet or was it accidental? :)
She is too cute!! Also, better fasten bookcases to the wall. My daughter has a bad habit of wanting to climb the bookcases, especially if I put “things she’s not supposed to get into” on the top shelves.
That, and watch for the inevitable pulling out of the kitchen drawers, to be used as a stepladder to get on the countertop and to even higher kitchen shelves.
What a climber! I love little monkey children.
Sometimes you can see the adult the child will grow into. By the time he was about 6 my little brother could make a home-made grappling hook & used it to climb the tree in front of the house. He’s an engineer living in Colorado now & climbs mountains for fun. Go figure!
Amp, you read actual newsprint? I didn’t know they still made that stuff!
Watch out she’ll be aiming for the top of the fridge next! My 4 year old was a climber and that was her ultimate goal, the ceral boxes on top of the icebox.
sydney is adorable. a cute little baldy baby just like mine was :)
my own daughter, ali, now almost 3, has been a climber from as soon as she could walk. scares the dickens out of us all the time but i don’t discourage her from doing it safely with us nearby. i want her to stay fearless!
one of the biggest things that p’d me off when my m-i-l was visiting last year was that when she was leaving, she commented that she hoped that as ali grew up she’d become more “feminine” and “fearful” … her exact words. my wife had to practically restrain me. she also had the wonderful comment that she hoped ali didn’t grow up to like “dark meat” since she’s growing up in new orleans with a 70% “dark” population. thank goodness this idiot wingnut mother of hers only come once a year. can you even imagine wanting your child to grow up “fearful”???
my f-i-l, i don’t allow to visit at all. when ali was born, he spent the entire visit telling us how women were inherently biologically deficient and could never do math or science or fight or defend themselves. it went on and on until i finally grabbed my daughter’s carrier and left the restaurant we were at. i said, you’re here in front of your wife, daughter, and granddaughter, and you spew this bile about women. these are the women in your life and you feel that way about them? i’m not letting you defile my daughter with your ideas. you are not welcome in my house. he left the next day but his wife, my m-i-l stayed for a few more days and has been back to visit twice. she’s coming again in may. oh frabjous joy.
Aaaawwwww! So cute!
That baby kicks ass!! What a clever kid! And so cute! Beware, Amp, I might just come to Portland and snatch her away from you!
And I’m gonna hazard a guess that you like purple. Am I right?
Dayum. Wish I was in Portland, I’d make myself available for babysitting. What a cutie-pie. And so athletic!
How ever did you guess? :-P
Hmm. I, too, live in Portland, OR. I’ve got an 11-month old daughter so I was delighted to read this and see what I can look forward too. Some of the comments helped me think about babyproofing, too.