Stairway to heaven

Stairs are a nightmare for any mother with toddler children. The minute the children could walk, we bought safety gates to put at the top of the stairs. They hate being barricaded. But too bad, their safety comes before their toddler desires. There have been scares.

Both Evan and Jordan are extremely zealous in descending the stairs. Often it's because there's the promise of more fun downstairs or people at the dining table, that is visible once the landing has been rounded. On occasion, I have worried about Jordan's shoulder socket being yanked out because she lurches and barrels down the stairs headlong with only me keeping her from tumbling down. Evan has actually tumbled down before, thankfully without hitting his head but giving us the fright of our lives and having me scream with fear I had until then never felt before.

But there is a lighter side to these stairway drama. Of course, the over-protective older generation find no humour in it and proceeded to give me a lecture about safety and toddlers. Anyway.

The twins love ransacking their grandfather's shirt breast pocket. They love his pen and his card holder. Both of them. One card holder, four grubby, snatchy hands. Sometimes Evan gets to it first, sometimes Jordan. But it is prized possession. One day, Evan got hold of it because Baby J was distracted by having shoes taken off her. Baby J catches sight of the "Golden Snitch" in Evan's hands and makes at him. Evan takes off, with the head start since there aren't hands holding him back. He runs across the living room, knowing his sister is in hot pursuit, scampers up the stairs, surely and quickly, also knowing that if his sister followed him, she would be stopped, which she was. Of course, he was chased after too by our helper and given a talking to.

Then, there was yesterday where for about 5 minutes a giant hunt for a missing Evan ensued. When they come home from school, I bathe the both of them. Usually I do it in my bathroom, both at the same time. I had announced this to them very loudly before hauling Baby J up the stairs leaving Evan with Ee-Por. But when Ee- Por looked up, he was gone. Then there was 2 minutes of "No... I thought you had him" before everyone fanned out through the house looking for him, hoping that he hadn't fallen into a bucket of water or something equally horrifying. He was finally found, once again, conquering the stairs so quickly that no one saw him, standing and waiting patiently in my shower stall holding his bottle of shampoo, for me to come shower him, totally oblivious of the panic that he had caused.

Yes, it is dangerous. I am fully aware of that. But kids do do the darndest things.

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