What is a parent to do when they have a fearless (and slightly stupid) climber on their hands?
We registered our little climber for toddler gymnastics! Starting this weekend, he will have 45 minutes per week from now until Christmas to climb to his heart’s content. And in that 45 minutes he will also develop skills and confidence. And with skill and confidence will hopefully come safer climbing.
Now, I should have thought to do this a few months ago when the real gymnastics clubs opened their fall registration. But, clearly I didn’t. Needless to say, by the time I thought to do this, they were all full.
But, after searching every possible option, I discovered a class with 1 open spot left. It’s at a community recreation centre just minutes from our house – it’s so close we could even walk there on a warm fall day. The class is specifically for children under 2 years old. It’s held in a multi-purpose gymnasium, so maybe it wont be as “good” as a real gymnastics club which is permanently set up specifically for gymnastics. But, the way I figure it, he’s not even 2 years old – he’ll have no idea how this one compares with other locations. In fact, at his age, he’s just going to love being able to climb, he presumably wont even think about other possible places to play. So, I think this is a perfect win.
I also discovered I missed swimming registration…again. Ops! When it comes to water, Little MPB loves it. And he has absolutely no fear of water – to the point of being very worrisome given his age and skill level (or lack there of). In fact, he loves the water so much we joke that he must be part fish. As far as I’m concerned, swimming is a basic life-safety skill, so I was determined to find him a swimming class for the fall. Needless to say, I managed to find an evening class with a spot left, at a location with a heated baby pool. The class starts at 5:30 so it’s going to be a rush to get him home, fed and in bed by 7pm, but we’ll make it work somehow. So, once again, I got lucky.
And so this fall, the Adult MPB’s are going to be busy teaching Little MPB to be safe while climbing and in the water. It should be fun!
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Oh, and on another exciting note, I discovered that the really close recreation centre has a introduction to skating that Little MPB will be old enough to take in January!! We had planned to just take him skating on our own to teach him how to sake, but I have to admit I am so excited to put him in baby/toddler skating. I had no idea such a thing even existed, it’s going to be so cute!! As I suspect this is a very popular activity in this Canadian winter city, to ensure I don’t forget to register him I’ve marked registration day in my calendar.
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Little MPB has now been to the emergency room 5 times in his life. Five times!! He’s not even 2, in fact, he’s not even close to being 2. How is this possible?!
I’ve begged him to keep himself healthy, even if just for a few solid months. We don’t need or want another 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) degree temperature. We’d love if he didn’t maybe swallow a magnet and we’d desperately prefer not to take an ambulance ride again. Heck, at this rate, we’d really just appreciate not spending a long weekend at the Children’s Hospital – as an aside, why does he do these things on long weekends?
I have to say, I’m thankful we have access to care for him. Even if my mommy heart desperately needs a break from his antics.
I also have to say, after this most recent visit tot he hospital, I learned a few more parenting things:
- I am the more calm parent. No-one ever guessed this would be the case, but it turns out, when compared to Mr. MPB I am the much more relaxed parent. (Even Mr. MPB would agree with this statement, albeit reluctantly).
- I am a mom to a very active toddler. We’ve known this since he started rolling over at 7.5 weeks. He has two speeds – go, go, go and sleep. And yet, we feel like something has switched in his brain over the last week and he’s become more adventurous/risky/stupid and this is really just the start of his climbing. We are very likely in for at least a few more years of panic inducing / death defying antics from this kid. Thank god for hair dye to hide my ever increasing white hairs (I’m not going grey, I’m going white, stark white).
- Toddler proofing is entirely different then baby proofing. Our “baby safe” living room, was immediately toddler proofed after our trip to the hospital yesterday.
- Furniture was re-arranged to prevent scary high climbing.
- Our floor is hardwood, so the foam play mats have been re-arranged to line the bottom of high areas that Little MPB could potentially fall from (EMS said that foam and fuzzy/thick carpets are best to break kids falls and help reduce the severity of in-house injuries).
A carpet was purchased to go under the coffee table, as Little MPB loves to climb and dance on top the coffee table. We decided to purchase a nice(r) carpet for this area as a long term element – I never, in my entire life, thought I’d own a shag carpet, but I actually love it.- All the shelves have now been properly secured to the walls. As we no-longer had the necessary parts, we even went to Ikea on university move-in weekend to get replacement wall attachment parts – they gave them all to us for free.
- As for Little MPB’s bedroom, we will be securing his dresser and his bookshelf to the walls. He has never climbed out of his crib, but we need to be prepared for the inevitable.
- A gate is going upstairs, either in the hallway before the stairs or at his doorway. (We are reluctant to put it in the hallway because we both injured ourselves in the past walking into it in the middle of the night).
We are trying not to put Little MPB into a bubble – he’s a little kid who just wants to be a little kid. But we also realize that there are simple steps we can take to help keep our little climber a bit more safe from injury.
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My Perfect Breakdown 