Cooper's Stool

Cooper has really developed the desire to climb on anything. Although, this is likely the natural progression of development for children, it has been a challenging transition for us. We were not ready for his climbing phase. We would look away and before we knew it, we would see him hanging from a chair in the kitchen, or leaning over an end table to reach a lamp...or crawling on the coffee table. He has been walking around with his blue plastic chair, but as he has grown, that chair has become woefully unsafe. Cooper has fallen many times on it, including one face plant into the carpet. The writing was on the wall, something needed to be done.


Needles to say, we were in a bind, because we had let Cooper stand on his chair in the past, so the precedent had been set. But now that he is getting older, it was unsafe. He doesn't understand the concept of safety yet, so we really needed to offer him a safe alternative.


One of Kelly's friends showed us the Learning Tower. Unlike many children's products, I actually thought this was a cool idea. This would enable Cooper to safely climb, and be involved while we are in the kitchen or at a table. This was particularly attractive considering the fact that Cooper likes to be held in the morning when we are making breakfast, and he is getting heavy. But at what a price??? The minimum I saw was $180 online. Not that Cooper is not worth it, but holy moley! That is expensive. So I started thinking about constructing my own learning tower.

I did some sketching and made some measurements and came up with this.

It took two evenings to build and at a great price point...<$50, plus the experience of building something. Cooper's stool as we like to call it. This has been an amazing addition to our furnishings. Cooper loves to stand in it. He frequently eats dinner in it! He has used it in unexpected ways too. It is kind of like a little jungle gym for him, which isn't safe. This has really helped Cooper improve his climbing skills, and it has allowed us to offer him a safe method of climbing.
He likes to assist with cooking duties. He likes to help me make coffee.


And of course, his view of Sesame Street has been greatly enhanced.



Here we moved his stool to the window so we could watch the approach of the "Great Blizzard of 2010." The blizzard was a dud by the way, but that's another story.

We hope he gets many months of entertainment out of this.

~posted by Paul