Our little climber

Well, Ilana has made Paul's life and become quite a climber since we've been here. I guess I never let her explore much at Baylor because the stairwell was so dirty and we had no real reason or opportunity to practice safe climbing. Well, they do have dirt in the mid-west, but at least it's not shared dirt with 200 other guys, it's just outside dirt or our dirt...somehow that makes it all ok. So, that in combination with the fact that I simply don't have the energy to pick her up very often has resulted in Ilana becoming much more brave and actually climbing. It's very exciting for me. Here are some pictures of our recent climbing adventures.

The next 3 are taken at the park that's 3 houses down the street from us. We'll probably live there most of the fall, after this little guy comes along. She LOVES it! Ilana was so proud of herself for climbing up the 2 steps to get to this landing (hey, we've gotta start somewhere!).

After she braved the small toddler structure, she decided to try her hand on the "big kids" structure. She climbed all the way up the steps, but wasn't quite brave enough to slide down this slide...

or the other one. Hey, I did say she was becoming a climber, not a slider, right?

She's continued her climbing adventures inside. She's found a safe way to get into and out of the living room rocking chair.

We encouraged the climbing by getting her a step stool for the kitchen. We also want to start incorporating her into as much cooking and kitchen help that we can get. Of course, I turned around one day and found her even putting on my gloves - she's going to be a great helper one of these days!!

Just tonight she climbed up into one of the plastic lawn chairs in the back yard - Paul was even impressed with her technique. Recently she's also started climbing into and out of the bathtub all by herself. All in all, we're really proud of our little climber. She's still one of the most cautious toddlers that I know, which puts my mind at ease. So, I tend to just let her go and try. She hasn't had too many bumps, bruises or scrapes to discourage her yet.

-H