Can't say Can't

Yay blogging! It’s been awhile. The twins finally nap on schedule, which means I have time to write. Here is what we have so far:

Ali wants a bunk be for her 5^th birthday. Sure all kids deserve the right to have a palace in the sky. I’m more than happy with the idea of saving space. There’s only one problem: Ali can’t climb a ladder.

Until now her fear of climbing has been great for me. With two twin babies in my arms it was hard to follow Ali around the park making sure she didn’t break her legs. I didn’t need her climbing up two story structures while I was trying to nurse a newborn in public. So I pulled her aside and said: “Hey, can you not climb?” She said “Sure.” I knew she was the best child ever.  I could hang out far from arms reach confident that Ali wouldn’t try anything new and dangerous. It was great.

Now that she’s got this bunk bed idea set in her head I decided we’d teach her how to climb. She’s older now and with better coordination.  It would only take one lesson and she’d be off like the monkey she was born to be, right?  More like: Yeah, right.

The other day Dan and I hit the park with the fam. I took the opportunity to head over to the ladder with Ali and get our lesson underway. After Ali was barely one foot off the ground she stopped, climbed back and said she was done. Huh? She could jump higher than that. I told her to get her booty back over there and climb.

This time she got two rungs up and said “I can’t go higher.” Can’t? Can’t? That’s not a word I promote so I started to get impatient.  I told her she HAD to climb. I was holding her up completely and she refused to move up the ladder. Then she started whining “I can’t do it “and that got me even more annoyed. I yelled “Don’t you dare say can’t!” I realize, now that I probably looked like a mom out of Toddlers and Tiaras who was berating her child for missing her choreography. But this was a life skill I was teaching here. I wouldn’t let her give up. Ali whimpered while I manually moved her legs up the three-foot ladder until she reached the top.

When she got to the top she said: “hey I did it!” We clapped and got excited and I tried to explain to her how hard work pays off but she ran away towards the slide before I could finish my speech.

When I asked her to try it again she started whining more and I had to call in Dan to take over. Maybe we’ll wait till her 6^th birthday for a bunk bed.