Val's heaven is the comfort of sleeping upstairs every night with her mom and dad. Unfortunately, our hardwood floors have gotten the best of Val's psyche and recently made her start to second guess her skills at navigating them on the way down. So, in the morning, we would wait a good 15-20 minutes and endure her crying and doing circles at the top of the steps. It really was quite sad to see her so bothered and scared of the decline and a potential slip and fall. Her legs would shake she became so distressed.
So, we did what any good parents would do - we carpeted the steps for our daughter. Now she goes up and down with all the confidence in the world -- that's our girl!
PS - Home Depot quoted us a price of $650 to do the steps whereas our local flooring company (Specialty Flooring in Roslyn) charged us $250 and they were great. Ha! Screw you Home Depot...we like Lowe's better anyway.
