In our new house, we have antique stairs. As in original to the house, original hard wood floors and everything, circa 1948. We also have a toddler, Henry, who is 14 months old. Luckily, until now Henry has been deterred from trying to go upstairs by a simple body pillow laying along the bottom stair. Not great, I grant you, but when you're busy moving stuff in from another house and you haven't had time to order a gate, it works. All we had to do was keep reiterating 'no' and putting the pillow back whenever we saw him go towards it.

Until today.

He had been really testing us for the past few days, picking up the entire pillow and walking away with it instead of his usual just pushing it aside and we had been telling him no, a small smack on the bottom to remind him, and replacing the pillow. Again, not great and we knew it wouldn't be permanent but until now it had been working. Today, however, my clever little boy waited until I was engrossed in something else for more than two seconds. He took the pillow, moved it away from the stairs, then stealithy climbed the stairs while I was in the next room getting something.

How did I know he had climbed the stairs? A slight tinkling noise. After making a quick circuit of the downstairs, checking every room, I resorted to calling his name. Then I looked upstairs, noting the pillow had been moved. All I saw was a shadow moving and as I began to climb the stairs, my little boy giggled and grinned at me through the railing - proud as a peacock as if he had managed the greatest trick. He'd managed Mount Everest! And in return, given his dear mother a heart attack.

Everything that wasn't baby safe had been moved upstairs so that Henry wouldn't be able to get into them. This included things that weren't safe from Henry, including books and such. But I could envision him having pulled the boxes down on top of himself, knocking over the television and stepping on glass, grabbing a pair of scissors from a box, etc. And then when he approached the top of the stairs, just a few steps above me, all I could see was him trying to come downstairs by himself - and making it, but not in once piece! Needless to say, my panic was a very real thing. I'm only grateful he didn't try to come downstairs and hadn't fallen backwards trying to go up the stairs! It still makes my heart race to think about it!

But thankfully, he's safely in his crib where I'm giving him a time out - just so I can let my heart rate decelerate. I'm going to have to put that boy on a ball and chain until the gate gets in or become his permanent shadow!