Climb

I got pretty crafty with this scrapbook page. I painted a cloudy border around the edges of the page and I borrowed a toy ladder that I dipped in paint to use as a stamp. I made a little cloud out of white circles and buttons and tucked a sun behind the large photo. It's not my usual style as far as these things go, but every now and then it's so nice to just get messy and play.



This is what it says:
I used to think Andrew was a climber. Andrew climbed up on the bedside table, the coffee table and once the dining room table! Isaac though has taught me that Andrew wasn’t really a climber. Not like Isaac, anyway.

Isaac began climbing as soon as he could walk. Within weeks of taking his first steps, he started climbing the ladder to the big slide, turning himself around at the top and sliding down on his belly. While he delighted in every minute of his big slide adventures, I shadowed his every move while I calmed the fluttering butterflies in my stomach. Then, once I became more comfortable with his agility, I lightly shadowed him while calming the butterflies in the stomachs of other mothers at the playground watching him climb.

The playground climbing didn’t satiate Isaac’s need for height. He would regularly climb onto the coffee table, but the dining room table was his favorite. I had once thought it remarkable that Andrew climbed onto the dining room table. But he did it once. Isaac climbed onto the dining room table all day long for weeks on end.

At a year a half, Isaac is still a climber, but the intensity has faded. Thank goodness. I am no longer plucking him off of tables and am grateful that he prefers to climb the stairs to our apartment rather than have me carry him. He’s figured out where it’s okay to climb and where it’s not. And THAT has greatly improved my quality of life.