Micah is a climber! For the past month, I’ve done my best to keep Micah away from our stairs. Mostly, I figured that he did not need to practice crawling up them, because it would require us to install gates. Last weekend, while we were at my niece’s birthday party, Micah crawled across the lower half of their deck, pulled himself up to a standing position on the step to the upper deck, then crawled right on up! I was amazed – he acted as if he had practiced the maneuver dozens of times!

This week, while we were out of town in Atlanta on business, Micah stayed at my parents’ house. They have a split-level house, with about 6 or 7 stairs going from the family room level to the entrance level, and then another 12 or so stairs from the entry level up to the bedroom level. Apparently, the very first night at my parents’ house, my mom plopped him in front of the stairs to see what he would do (something I’ve avoided for quite some time!). Micah crawled right over and climbed up the stairs. According to my mother, it was “effortless.” We’re clearly in trouble – I think it is finally time to install those baby gates!