She's a climber. She's an adventurer.
And I am not used to this.
I guess I should be. She started heading up the stairs before she could walk. When she started pulling up, she would crawl over to the trampoline, pull up, and climb on top. I should have suspected that things would only get more adventurous.
First, we started finding her on her "perch".
No big deal. It's a nice stable spot. She feels tall, she can see the TV, she can eat her snack, she can even dance.
Then she did this.
Outside, this is where you'll find her most of the time.
Then the other day, she did this.
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| Yes, she is balancing on ONE FOOT, trying to push the buttons on the TV. Madison was watching her in awe. |
And I don't have a picture of it (because I was busy having a heart attack) but the other night, while waiting for Madison to finish up in the bathtub, she climbed on top of the toilet tank. Not the seat, the tank. She got on the seat, and I guess, figured, why stop there?
It doesn't stop outside of our house. She climbed on the speaker behind a friend's TV, on top of chairs and tables at a birthday party, up a wooden fence at the farm next door.
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| This is how she plays outside. On the picnic table. |
She is even (gasp) making an attempt at climbing out of her crib.
So far, her size is stopping her. Even when she piles up her stuffed toys and blankets, she's still too little.
But I don't see that stopping her for long.
I'm kind of dreading the toddler years with this one. If she's this adventurous at 13 months, what will she be like at 18 months? What will she be like at 2?
Madison wasn't a climber. Certainly not like this. She's only a few months away from her third birthday and she hasn't once attempted to get out of her crib. She climbs into the car, into her booster, onto the twin bed in her room, up the ladder of her playscape, but never really climbs for the sake of climbing, as Reagan seems to.
I'm ok with letting her explore. She's a physical kid. I don't think it's realistic, or even desirable, to remove anything she can possibly climb on (as was suggested to me). Exploring is how kids learn, right? And she's crafty. She will find a way to keep climbing, even if we remove anything taller than 12 inches from the house. A few people have told me that as soon as she falls, or gets stuck somewhere, she'll learn her lesson. She has had a few falls (little ones) and she'll get up, run over to me, get a hug, and head right back to where she fell from.
But I also need to be able to walk away from the play area, and not come back to Reagan scaling the baby gate. I need to know that she's safe while she explores.
Did any of you have a climber? How did you handle letting them explore while still feeling confident they were safe?
