Give a boy a hand.

Connor needs no help when it comes to reaching things in high places. I’m still not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing but he will find a way to reach something be it on the kitchen table, a high shelf, or even the kitchen cabinets if he really wants it. This means moving chairs, boxes, or even toys for him to climb on. All of which takes him just seconds if he is determined and usually before I even realize what he is doing. The problem with this is its terribly unsafe and we have had more than one bruise on his noggin as a result of his climbing attempts.

Lately he just wants to do or see what I’m doing and he hates been excluded. Cooking dinner has become even harder than normal as he is using right under my feet screaming up or pretty much giving the play by play of what’s going on from under my feet in his little Connor language (hot, pan, chop, hot, glove) doing the best he can trying to tell me what I’m doing. As adorable as it is it honestly drives me nutty when I’m trying really hard to get dinner on the table before he has a total meltdown from not being able to help and pure hunger. So finding ways to entertain him or more importantly include him is a challenge.

The Learning Tower is really unusual. Part step stool, part play house it’s the first real option I’ve found to allow children to really partake in the adult world safely. The wooden tower can be slid up to a counter or tall table and the child can safely stand on it allowing them to reach counter height safely without fear of falling. Connor helped me put ours together and the moment it was together he almost instantly realized what it was for and he climbed up without any prompting stood on the platform and gave me a huge kiss for the first time without me having to pick him up or bend down to his level. Ironically I’m so short that when he is standing on the Learning Tower on the top setting he is not so much shorter than I am. Heh.

At first we used our learning tower purely as a playhouse. Connor can easily climb up and down without any assistance and he loves to hide with his favorite stuffed animal underneath the shelf and jump out and scare me. We’ve also put a blanket over the top to turn it almost into a mini cave for Connor to hide in which he really enjoys. Though we have an ever growing selection of puppets he hasn’t quite mastered that concept yet but I figure its only a matter of time as the Learning Tower makes for an ideal puppet theater with the shelf completely removed.

The real joy in the Learning Tower is the fact that when Connor is standing on the top setting he is tall enough to reach the kitchen counters. This means he can help me do easy tasks in the kitchen like making salad or sandwiches. Connor’s favorite thing of all though is the sink. He is absolutely fascinated with water and the sink is always a favorite play thing. Previous to our tower I would have to hold him up and let him was his hands or sit him on the counter by the sink and watch him like a hawk in fear that he would fall face first into the sink or worst off the counter all together. Now if I’m doing something in the kitchen and need some free time to work I can just drag his Learning Tower in and set it up by the sink and the kid would happily play in sink full of water for hours or until his hands shriveled into little fat raisins. Though I always watch him I don’t worry about him falling or the tower tipping over.

I know we will be enjoying our new Learning Tower for many years to come and it will grow as he grows first just by lowering the platform to accommodate his height and finally to be used as a playhouse all by itself. It’s all up to him on how he wants to use it, I’m just along for the ride.

Visit Little Partners website to learn more about the Learning Tower and to purchase one for yourself!