Liberation!

The house can be pretty chaotic when the bus gets home...kids shouting and running up and down stairs with toys and neighbor friends, Clementine unloading all of the drawers and cupboards, me putting the finishing touches on dinner and attempting to put away or have kids put away shoes/coats/backpacks/lunchboxes and all items from all of the drawers and cupboards.

It was at a moment like this that I paused, knee-deep in tupperware, and urgently gasped, "WHERE IS Clementine, the creator of this chaotic plastic-container cesspool?" I instinctively knew that she'd used my inattention as an opportunity to venture down the forbidden basement stairs, left accessible by the boys' performance of the forbidden leaving-the-door-to-the-basement-open ritual.

I silently peered down the stairs and -JOY!- saw that Clementine was 2/3 the way down, obediently sliding on her tummy, feet-first like I make her practice. The big difference, of course, was that when we practiced, she laughed at me and went up 2 stairs for every 2 she went down and never actually progressed. Apparently a basement full of raucous squealing big kids was motivation enough to inspire her to go ALL the way down safely.

LIBERATION! You might be thinking SHE is liberated because now she can go down to the playroom or up to her bedroom whenever she wants. NO! It's Me! I am liberated because I no longer have to babysit the staircases with ultimate diligence. (I still don't allow gymnastics routines, wrestling, bike-riding, or leap-frog at staircase precipice.) So now that I don't HAVE to watch closely, I DO watch closely because it makes me giggle with delight to see my little baby climb up and down unawares of my spying.

And after she came back upstairs (a feat accomplished months ago), she CLOSED THE BASEMENT DOOR! Smartest Weibel kid ever.