Stair Master

Zachary has conquered the art of climbing stairs! It's so cute to watch as he approaches the stairs, looks back at us, then walks/crawls up the stairs one by one, occasionally grabbing onto the railing as a break. Going down them still isn't something that interests him; even the single "step" down from our wood-burning stove's base to the ground is often enough to strand him there, where he whines until we come and help him down.



Of course with the stairs now an area of interest, we installed a gate at the top of the stairs. I only afterwards noticed the bold print on the gate's safety label saying "not for use on stairs." Ah well, it's more of a general barrier than something for him to actively push on, so until he masters (or at least shows an interest in) descent, we should be okay just keeping him supervised on the rare occasions when he's in the upstairs hallway. He's much more interested in going into upstairs rooms and closing the door behind him anyway.

New vocalizations in the past few days -- the "w" and "y" sounds have become increasingly fun for Zachary to say. He likes to say "wawa" and "aya" and hear you repeat it, but "wocka" is his favorite; is he training to be the next Fozzie Bear? Zachary has also started repeating the word 'cookie' and 'cracker' (more or less accurately) when mommy says it. Yup, he's definitely our son!