The Plant Shelf

 When we first built our upstairs, we didn't decorate this shelf immediately. It was empty for i don't know how long; the caduceus was the last item added, sometime in this century.  The wooden shelf was the first thing added, but even that was sometime after we moved into the upstairs.
  Anyway.
  Max was the kid who
wouldn't stop moving.  He liked taking what you & i would consider risks.
  He was, and is, so well aware of where his body is in space that, as long as no other person is involved, those things were not risky for him.
  Like this plant shelf.
  Max would climb over the kneewall (half wall) and do - somethng or other.  It looked like dancing, though i'm sure he didn't think of it that way.
  Scary enough that he was there.
  But i learned quickly that, to lure him back off, i needed to move slowly and talk gently.
  My natural inclination was to lurch and grab.
  And those were the times he came closest to falling.
  He lost interest when the wood shelf and little resin figures appeared.  Strange, you'd think the figures, especially the TRAIN, would've attracted him all the more.


  He also liked tree climbing back then.  Until his older cousin showed him some tips to do it more safely.
  And he never afterwards tried to climb a tree.
  Challenge conquered, i guess.