My Little Mountain Goat

For all the run-around that Harrison gave me as a baby and toddler, I must say - he was never a climber or a jumper. Of course he could get up on things, but he was just more content to stay on one level for his daily (I mean day-long) activity. And the lack of jumping? I was honestly beginning to wonder if we had a problem at age two because he still wasn't doing much of it, but now he leaps and hops and flops with the best of them. No worries!

Enter Raegan. While she's still too little for jumping (I should knock on wood, otherwise she'll start doing it tomorrow), she is a climbing machine. Seriously. The child is either part monkey or part mountain goat or perhaps both.

As soon as she was mobile (which was what - six months or before?!), she's been taking the high road. Literally. If she can find a route that includes pulling herself up and over something, she's much happier than to have a wide open path. Pillows, blankets, toys, books, people - doesn't matter. Just give the girl something to climb over and she's good.

And while I'm shocked to report that we still don't have actual walking, I think I understand why. This kid is just a climber. Yes, she's still pulling herself up on things and turning non-walker-toys into walkers on a regular basis. But lately, this is her favorite thing to do:

Notice the pattern? Not only does she love chairs, she loves to get up on them all by herself. Not only does she like to get up on them, she likes to stand on them. See?! She has to be part mountain goat! And of course she is the cutest little mountain goat I've ever seen, but still. She is going to give me heart failure.

My mother-in-law has this famous story about Ben that relates (and also allows me to officially call Raegan His Child as I do whenever the children do something for which I don't want to take credit). Apparently, when Mr. Ben was a mere 18 months old, he climbed a ladder. To the roof! They were outside with him, doing a project and all of the sudden, there he wasn't. Turns out, the little stinker just scooted himself right up on and right on up a ladder that was leaning against their house. Heaven help me! At least he waited until he was 18 months; I have a feeling Raegan's going to end up in the most precarious places well before then....

This is our play constructure. We've had it since June. It was intended to be for Harrison, at least for the first year or so. A couple weeks ago, Ben discovered that Little Miss could navigate the ladder pretty much all on her own. He stands there as a spotter, but she really doesn't need it (well, of course she does, but in her mind, I think she's all, "I GOT this."). Check it out:

See how easy that is for her?!

And then, she pushed a chair over to the wall/little bookcase the other day, to do this:

I guess we had better be pretty darn careful about leaving any ladders up against the house, huh? Otherwise she'll be up on the rooftop, just like her daddy in no time. Did I ever mention that Ben and I come from some highly competitive families? It would so be like our kids to want to beat our records, especially of the really important stuff like rooftop ascension age. ;) Actually, I think we better be pretty darn careful about leaving any sort of climbing leverage anywhere...no surface is going to be safe with this little monkey in the house!