Eugenious

One of the small, agile, climbing kinds. Like a marmoset.

On Sunday morning, I awoke to hear Sylvan talking. I often wake up like this, lying there listening to my son and my husband conversing downstairs. Usually, it sounds like this: “Rubboo . . . on,” followed by Chris’s explanation that rubber-soled shoes only go on when we’re going outside. On Sunday, Sylvan was saying “up,” a word succeeded only a second later by a big thud. And Chris was still next to me in bed! Uh-oh. I ran into Sylvan’s room, where I found him on his hands and knees on the floor, looking surprised with big tears running down his cheeks. Chris quickly gave Sylvan a little head-to-toe pat-down (no broken bones) while I kissed the tears away. So the comfort of having Sylvan caged up like an animal in his bed is coming to an end.

On Sunday evening, we put Sylvan to sleep in a Pack ‘n’ Play, since it’s a little deeper than his crib. I paused the movie, The Singing Detective (even though it’s Robert Downey, Jr., don’t bother), because I heard Sylvan’s doorknob jiggling. Yes, the little escape artist had stealthily scaled the playpen walls, letting himself down gently on the other side. I put him back in so he’d do it again. It was an impressive display of strength and flexibility. He hooked his left heel over, pulled his whole body up, swung his body over the top, and lowered himself gently to the ground. As frustrated as I was that I couldn’t think of how to contain our too-young-to-be-reasoned-with little boy, I was proud of his persistence and agility.

Chris MacGyvered Sylvan’s crib so that the mattress is resting on crates, six inches below where it used to sit. Sylvan might be able to get out of that, too, but he hasn’t yet. He has a nest of sleeping bags and pillows in front of the crib onto which he can throw himself if he feels so inclined. The next step is the mattress on the floor. So my little boy will be up and prowling the corners of his room at night, figuring out how to remove the safety plugs from the outlets and how to scale the bookcase.

This entry was posted in the categories Sylvan by julie on Tuesday, 20 February 2007, 22:00. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.