Walk (and Skip, and Hop, and Run, and...) on the Line

*Warning: If you have a problem seeing a mommy blog where the child is not dressed in a perfectly coordinated outfit (or even wearing any pants), and the home is messy and actually looks lived in then you better not read this post. :) 

Ever since he could walk, Erik has loved to see how close to the edge he can get. He loves trying to balance on things and see if he can walk on them. If he loses his balance though, he's okay with that because it means he gets to jump off of whatever it is and that's dare devil enough for him. 

I've toyed with the idea of making some kind of balance beam for him, and had even considered doing this particular idea, but I just never did it. Our new apartment is TINY so I don't have a place to put any kind of balance beam, and tape on the floor just didn't seem like it would be all that exciting. 

Then, I started seeing pins for games using masking tape all over pinterest, and thought that if everyone else thinks it looks like fun than maybe Erik will too. One day when he was bored and driving us both crazy I grabbed my roll of painter's tape and let him help me make a line on the floor. It looked too narrow, so I ended up putting three strips side by side. 

We started out walking on the line...

...but that soon turned into jumping.

 His "Ta Da!!!" pose: 

 Next he wanted to find out what else could walk the line. Various toys were put to the test, starting with this toy horse.

 It quickly became apparent that his toys were as good as he was at this game, so it was time to see what else could do it. Suddenly all the books off of my bookshelf were taking turns sliding down the line.

 Then, he decided he needed a bigger challenge. Would a can of pumpkin roll down the line? It turns out cans are a little more prone to wandering wherever they please. To be fair though, he gave a good number of cans a chance at the line, with generally the same results for them all. Cans just aren't good at rolling straight.

It was so fun to watch Erik work those legs muscles as he walked, tip-toed, jumped, skipped, hopped, and crawled along the line. It was even more fun to watch his little brain work as he tried sending object after object along the line. Amazingly enough, this simple little strip of tape kept this kid busy for well over an hour, and that's not including the time he spent the next day playing with the ball of tape we made when we pulled up the line.