You are NOT a big boy yet!

I have a baby. He is one year old. He walks, and babble-talks, and tries to feed himself with a spoon. These are all normal, average one year old baby activities. These, and things like splashing in the bath tub, wiggling during diaper changes, and putting blocks in your mouth. I accept these things as age-appropriate milestones, and I enjoy them. They are cute.

But my baby is not content with age appropriate activities. My baby wants to do big boy things. He wants to follow big boys like his friend Kaeden, or Daddy, and do what they do. And it is not cute. It freaks me out!

Monkey-man likes to climb stairs, and then turn around and just walk right down them. He can't though, is the thing, so I have to stand behind him, holding onto his arms to keep him from literally falling headfirst down the stairs because he skipped right past the turn-around-and-crawl-down-stairs phase and went right to taking big leaps down the stairs. Can you said 'head injury'??

He also likes to walk out into traffic/parking lots without waiting for anyone, he enjoys crawling from one piece of furniture to the top of another piece of furniture (a higher, taller piece of furniture), and he finds great joy in reaching for sharp/hot/full things on the kitchen counter.

Much to my chagrin, he also thinks that climbing onto the seat of his brand new tricycle and standing on it like a water-skier with one leg in the air and one hand on the handle bars is a neat trick (except when he falls on his face). He thinks that pulling chairs out from under the dining room table is cool (except when they tip over on his head). And he finds it necessary to help us unload the dishwasher by climbing onto the open door and extracting plates (except when one drops on his toes).

Why can't he stay content with safe, quiet things like empty boxes or musical stuffed animals for a little while longer...?

Sigh.