stairs might be the death of me

We had a little get together at our friend's house (who do not have children). Three little boys all under the age of two went wild with the new space to explore. A question was posed to the parents in the room, "how do you know what needs baby proofing?" Within 30 seconds they so kindly pointed out all the things they shouldn't have access to. It's funny how quickly just letting your kid wander around will show you how to "baby proof" the area.

At home our space is pretty safe for Atticus to explore as he pleases (it is not safe however for certain items i.e. contents of drawers, dvd's, canned food, couch pillows, etc.). The downside is our home has a gazillion stairs. Atticus does well with stairs. He's only had a few tumbles in the beginning but overall he had them down. Since he recently started walking, for some reason he loves to go right up to the edge and just teeter over. His balance is decent but he's still a toddler...and man does he toddle. It is freaking. Me. Out.

The past month we've tried to teach him that he needs to sit down and go backwards. It doesn't seem to be clicking. Do I need to just relax and let him figure it out (even if that means the hard way)? If anyone has any suggestions on how to get him to understand (at least until he's more balanced), seriously I'm all ears.

It would be nice to take our pouf pillow barricade down soon, if not I think the panic I'm feeling because of these dang stairs is going to kill me.