It had to happen.

We live in a 2-story house, which wasn't my choice necessarily, I REALLY wanted a one-story ranch style, but those are expensive and hard to come by here. Two-story homes are a pain, you forget something and have to run upstairs or vice versa, stairs suck to vacuum, the upstairs is substantially hotter than the downstairs, just more of a pain in general. My biggest problem with 2-story homes however is kids! In the rental house we lived in before this one, my son took several tumbles down the stairs, one time ending in a complete face-plant on the tile entryway. Not a good thing! I was remotely relieved that our new house has the type of staircase that goes up halfway, has a landing and turns the opposite direction for the rest of the way, so I figured if anyone fell, it would only be halfway! Luckily, no one has tumbled down the stairs, that is until yesterday. My little girl, who isn't even walking yet, has taken a liking to the stairs. This is a recent development and I have not caught up with this milestone yet. So while I was clearing the morning dishes, I heard this "whump, whump, whump, splat, WAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Believe me, you never saw someone move so fast and jump over a couch in the manner I did! I stripped her down, while she was wailing, to ensure that there were no broken bones or blood, there was not, and in fact, I'm pretty sure she just scared the hell out of herself because she was shaking so hard. She cried and cried, I hugged and cried along with her and we made it through. Babies learning to walk ESPECIALLY with stairs in the house completely sucks! It would help if she weren't such a daredevil, but this little girl is all or none and I worry that she will be nothing but a walking bruise until she's 6. I just remember this stage with my son, crying with him and my heart breaking everytime he skinned a knee or busted his head. I sometimes think that the pain they feel is felt ten-fold by me! You would think the tumble would have made her leery of the stairs, but on the contrary, she seems more fascinated than ever. Seems these stairs are her Mt. Everest right now and she won't quit until she conquers them. But for now, Everest is blocked by a baby gate and she's PISSED about it!