As Peeper grinned at me from the top of the stairs, it hit me: I have a 10-month-old daredevil on my hands.
As she gets older, her personality shows itself more and more. That personality is turning out to be bold.
My fearless Peeper races to the top of a flight of stairs with no sign of caution or hesitation. In fact, she barely needed me as a spotter as she zipped up 15 stairs, even though she’d only tried it once before. And each time I brought her back to the ground level at my parents’ house, she’d turn around and crawl right back.
Peeper is taking after her dad in this regard. I’m more physically cautious: I prefer riding my bike along a river path to flying downhill. Eric, on the other hand, is a sucker for thrill.
When we visited the Grand Canyon together, he kept looking over the edge (and taking photos of his feet dangling off an overhang) while my stomach did somersaults. When he was a kid, his parents brought a spare change of clothes everywhere they went because he’d fall into any nearby creek, lake or ocean. And he once climbed a chain link fence, shouting “I’m invincible!” from the top—only to fall and break his arm.
(Anyone want to bet on when we’ll see similar superhero ridiculousness from Peeper?)
As Peeper explores, I follow. I climb the stairs behind her. I catch her as she launches herself into the pool. I console her when she topples over.
I admire the adventurous spirit she and Eric share. I’ll work on finding a balance between my impulse to urge everyone to be careful with my desire to let Peeper test her boundaries. That is how she’ll discover just how high she can climb, deep she can dive and far she can go.
It must be exhilarating and both exhausting to have a lil one in motion and so bold and adventurous and engaged with the world – but partially also because she doesn’t know to fear!
I think her face at the top of the stairs says it all! Quite the adventurer you have 🙂
Love her t-shirt! 😉 I miss those baby days…they grow up SO fast!
I love this, Catherine, although I’m so glad I don’t see obvious splotches of dirt on the stairs in the photo. And ahem do I need to remind you of some of your daredevil acts? All you need to do is look at your knees and elbows for remnants of at least one trip to the ER. But I delight in Edie’s adventuresome spirit, and respect how you allow her to explore and stretch all the while learning who she is and will become. Fabulous!