Friday, May 9, 2008

My Climber

Emily Rose, almost seventeen months, is a climber. It started with her climbing onto stray diaper boxes and preschool chairs. We removed them. It has progressed, even though she is only in the 50% for height, and she's got short legs. Yesterday, she mastered climbing onto the couches in both the living room and playroom, and onto our living room recliners. We had to move our living room lamps to higher ground! I kid you not. The living room is now too dark to be used for reading, and our lamps look ridiculous on top of our tall TV armoire . If we had ample money to replace them, they would have stayed. There's no furniture-replacement budget, that's for sure.

When I suggested today that the lamps were now in danger of being destroyed and had to go, Don threw up his hands. "Can't we just train her not to climb!?" Seriously, I had considered that. But then I saw how regal and adorable she looked, sitting up on the couches and recliners, like a grown-up girl, feeling all proud and satisfied. She was so busy admiring the view and the accomplishment, she actually paused her activities. She sat still. The girl is hyper and never pauses, mind you, so this was big to see.

Can we really bring ourselves to say she can't use the furniture, when all the rest of us can? I would be constantly removing her. Her desire to climb is so inherent, I believe she will be the child who makes it to the top of Mt. Whitney, with Mommy and Daddy, someday. Daniel and Timmy love to hike, but not because they are climbers. It's because they love exploring nature. We do too, of course, but there's something about climbing mountains that really floats our boats. In fact, I miss my native California only for its mountains.

The boys would hike five miles up Mt. Whitney, explore the lakes, observe the wildlife, rest for a while, then hike back down. I don't see them ever making it to the top. But Emily? Yes! My girl is going to do it!

Who needs lamps, anyway?

2 comments:

Evenspor said...

I love it. Hooray for the climbers. Horray for the mamas who let them be. ;)

Ashley said...

What a great post! I'm sure Emily Rose lights up the room much more than lamp every could anyway.