Climbing

Annie is at that lovely stage of toddlerhood where the main goal of everything she does is to get as far off the ground as she can. Climb, climb, climb. She mastered Rachel's bed and the couches a while back, but now she's moved on to climbing higher on the couch backs and arms, climbing on the chairs, trying to climb over the back of her highchair, and most especially, climbing onto the kitchen table.

I feel like I am getting her down from the table at least a couple of times an hour all day long. I have tried taking most of the interesting things off the table, but that only helps marginally. Her number one goal in life is to stand on the table and dance. Though, like I said, anything is fair game. After I emptied the dishwasher the other day she grabbed her binky, blanket, and sippy cup and decided the dishwasher door was the place for her to rest. Of course I reinforced her idea by snapping a picture of her before I got her off, so she tried a couple more times that day to try to make me laugh.

Rachel is often the police if I'm in a different room, announcing that Annie's on the table again. But last week when Rachel was gone at preschool I realized I hadn't seen Annie for a minute or two, and went to find her punching the buttons on the computer on the kitchen table. I got her down, closed the laptop, and brought her into the bedroom where I was getting things organized. A few minutes later she wandered out again, and after another minute I followed to find this:

I sure am glad I closed that computer before she got to the salt, otherwise there would be salt stuck in the depths of the keyboard forever.

And yes, the salt shaker was completely empty when I found her.

Today I had Annie outside with me while Rachel was inside painting with her Aunt Cari who's visiting for a few days. Rachel and Cari came out to join us, but of course after a few minutes Annie headed inside. When I went to check on her I found her at her favorite place:

After getting paint on several of her fingers she noticed the cup of water they'd been using for the paint and tried to drink it. Yum. :P

Thankfully there have not been any major injuries yet, and I hope that continues. She does fall, however, occasionally, and tile is not the softest ground to catch her. Last week there was one day I was sure would end in a concussion, with her falling off the ottoman that she had been standing up dancing on, landing right on her head, according to Rachel, then that same day having a chair slip while she was trying to bridge the gap to the table and falling instead onto the tile floor. Sometimes I wish for those docile children I see sitting in their mothers' laps for all 3 hours of church, or even just 15 minutes. For now I suppose I'll enjoy the 2 minutes of cuddling I get before putting her down for a nap or bed. That's about as long as I ever see her hold still. And hopefully for now we will avoid the ER despite all her climbing adventures.