Stairway to...More Stairs

My parents live in a three-story house with a basement. The main floor hosts the living, dining, and music rooms, along with the kitchen and a small half bathroom. The second floor is home to the bedrooms and more bathrooms, while the third floor is a single bedroom (which was my bedroom in middle and high school - it rocked). The basement includes the family room, laundry room, and another small bathroom. I lay all this out for you to point out that we use nearly every room on every floor almost every day.

My house in Texas has ONE step, on the front porch. My parents' house has, if you include the front, side, and back porch steps, 54 steps. We've been here for two weeks and I, my kids, and my calves have yet to adjust.

It's been 15 years since I lived (full-time) in this four-story tower, and now, after living for a year-and-a-half in a one-stair house, I'm kind of over my love affair with stories. I'm already going to the gym every day while I'm on "vacation" - I don't want to feel like I'm spending my free time on a stair master. Yesterday I decided not to moisturize my unbelievably dry lips just because my Chapstick was in the second floor bathroom and I was in the basement family room. The day before I bribed Will to go upstairs, find my purse, and throw it down the laundry chute to me.

The look on his face says it
all - he's so over the stairs.

Will's not a huge fan of the stairs either. He's sleeping in the third-floor bedroom, and last night he loudly thumped all the way from the third floor to the basement family room to tell me he no longer wanted that bedroom because he had to go up too many stairs to get there. I told him he still needed to sleep there, as I wasn't about to play musical beds at 10pm, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that if he'd just stayed upstairs and gone to sleep he could have avoided 80 (40 down, 40 up) of those stairs.

Hallie, on the other hand, finds the stairs incredibly intriguing and not at all tiring. She purposely carries one item at a time up or down the stairs so that she'll have to make multiple trips, and whenever she uses the stairs she does so differently than the time before. Up on her feet, down on her butt. Up going backwards, down going sideways. Up on her knees, down with no hands. Up like a cat, down with her eyes closed.  I have "9" and "1" pre-pressed on my cell phone. The kicker is that whenever Hallie has to pee she makes sure to use a bathroom on a different floor. She'll be yelling "I HAVE TO PEE SO BAD" and pulling off her pants while standing in front of a bathroom, but she insists on heading up or down to relieve herself.

The positive in all of this?  When we return to Texas we're going to have calves of steel.