Tempting a tumble

The Dad Diary
Edwin McGreal

Séimí is at that lovely stage where he has mastered the ability and willingness to climb but retains absolutely no sense of danger – or sense of any kind, for that matter.
And for those wondering, yes, the use of the word ‘lovely’ was laced with sarcasm.
Our kitchen is an exercise in damage limitation. All the presses have child locks on them. Drawers are not as easily solved so bamboo sticks go down through them all.
Correction, they did until Séimí worked out he could bend them until they would break. So they’ve been replaced by timber lats. So far, so good.
The chairs around the kitchen table are tied with rope virtually all day, only liberated at dinner time, when Séimí is safely in his high chair – and strapped in; or when he’s napping.
Last week we took a walk on the wild side and released the ropes to see if Séimí had grown out of climbing up onto the table. Had he heck!
In the sitting room, all the furniture is backed against walls because he loves to climb to the back of the couch and armchairs.
Not alone that, he has now managed to use the drawer handles as climbing wall holds to get up onto the counter. From there, his small world is his oyster. Kettle, sink, all the material put in high cupboards for a reason are within his reach.
So, after weeks of feeling we could leave him off and let him potter around, we’re back to not being able to take our eyes off him.
At least Frankie and Éamon have stood up to the plate for us with their baby brother’s misbehaving … again, sarcasm alert.
Éamon uses the opportunity to play puck himself and test our limits. He knows he can’t get our full focus so he takes advantage. In time we might admire his opportunism, but not right now.
Himself and Séimí love to wrestle and jump and be boisterous. Typical boys. Trouble is Éamon shows Séimí how to do things Séimí isn’t able for and because Séimí has no sense, he tries them anyway.
There’s been plenty of falls. Lots of uses of ice-packs but, mercifully, no trip to the doctor for fall-related injuries. It’s but a matter of time however.
Frankie has the best sense of them, but Séimí could be hanging off the kitchen lights in front of her and she will be oblivious to it. One of us will come in and ask why she didn’t call out to us.
“I didn’t see him,” will be the inevitable reply.
Pray for us.

In his fortnightly column, Edwin McGreal charts the ups and downs of the biggest wake-up call of his life: parenthood.