DAREDEVIL

Here is a dear sweet picture of our baby Clark: Cute, huh? I guess he's not technically a baby anymore. He's 15 months. But I still tend to think of him as my baby. At least until I saw him do this yesterday:

When I first turned around to see this little boy standing on top of his Leap Frog learning table I think I sucked in about a gallon of air! How in the world did he get up there? Notice there are no other toys around the table that he used to climb on to get up on top. He merely used himself. And he accomplished this feat with a toy in hand. Notice the train in his left hand. He had to have done this somewhat one-handedly! Not only that, the center of this learning table is raised and the outsides slant downwards toward the ground. Clark is standing on the sloping edges of the table. And he balanced there just fine. Not a single care. Like he's on top of the world. Today I caught him trying to jump from the couch onto this same toy! Who does this kid think he is?

I started thinking about the absence of fear this child has and all the other "feats" he has recently accomplished that have made me catch my breath. I decided to catch a couple of them on video to document his fearless behavior. Clark started walking 2 months ago. And after catching him do this:

for the first time 2 weeks ago . . . . apparently he thinks he already gone pro on the whole walking thing.

No one showed him how to do this. No one taught him to get down the stairs this way. He figured it out all by himself. Does your 15 month old walk down the stairs like a normal person? Granted he is holding onto the stair rail bars, but he's WALKING down the stairs!! I know some 2 year olds who still will not WALK down the stairs. They still scoot down on their bums. Not this kid! And then there's this method:

Mallory would be the one that instigated this approach down the stairs. But Clark wasted no time in figuring out how she does it. He giggles all the way down. I think we have a thrill seeker on our hands. I foresee many visits to the ER with this child. He thinks he's invincible! Chase and Mallory were not nearly as fearless or daring as Clark is at this age. This is all new to me. Not once did Chase or Mallory ever climb out of their crib - or even ATTEMPT to climb out of their crib. I'm predicting Clark to be a different story. Not only do I think he will attempt it, I think he will succeed. At the rate he's going anyway . . . . with the whole "I like to participate in dangerous activities that freak my mother out" campaign he's running. These are JUST three of the fearless instances that have happened around here lately from our little Clark. The inspiration for Clark's name was Clark Kent . . . . . .Superman. At this point I think we named him after the wrong superhero. We should have named him Matt - after Matt Murdock. You know . . . .the Daredevil. . . .


*Disclaimer: Lest you judge too quickly and make a bad mother out of me . . . .I do watch my "daredevil" son as best I can. There are times when my back is turned for a few moments such as while cooking dinner, changing a load of laundry, helping one of my other two children use the bathroom, or heaven forbid I have to use the restroom myself, etc., etc. Clark seems to have a sixth sense about when my back is turned for those few moments. It is at these times that he decides to pull his freakish, seemingly pre-meditated stunts. I love my child and positively re-direct him toward safer methods of play when I catch him participating in unsafe activities. Including maneuvering the stairs in a safe manner.