Right of passage
A couple of days ago out of the blue, Tin started trying to hurl himself down the stairs. T noticed it and told me about it, but I hadn’t seen it up close and personal. It’s odd because he has been such a careful boy, learning so fast how to go up and down the stairs either on his bottom or holding on to someone’s hand. Suddenly he is standing at the top of the step and just plunges headlong. He tried it twice on the front porch and then again at our friend’s house during their party.
Well yesterday, I was watering the succulents (it’s been so dry here, and now we think the worms died from the drought) and Tin was crawling up the back stairs and then carefully coming down them on his bottom. Then he climbed to the top and completely threw himself off and he did a somersault after hitting his head on the cement. I gasped and my heart stopped and then I held him, but he was more surprised and shocked then hurt – which is unimaginable after what I saw.
Afterwards we sat on the ground, him in my lap, me stroking his back as he cried, and we talked about why you need to hold hands or sit on your bottom to come down stairs. Seems all the words from Mama weren’t going to stop him – only the reality of hurling down a small flight of stairs and flipping over after hitting concrete could make the same words later from Mommy sound like a smart idea.
The nun said it was Tin’s right of passage. And I said under my breath, I hope Tin takes most things on our advice and doesn’t have to go out there and try to prove he knows better. Otherwise, I envision worry worry worry. On the other hand, I can sort of see what he was doing, he was up there thinking, you know all these people around me just walk down the stairs without holding on or scooting on their bottom, if they’re all doing it, why can’t I?