Sir Edmund Hillary Had Nothing on Our Little Climber

First I'd like to begin by wishing our Little Baby Brigid a happy 17th-month birthday a day late. Hard to believe it's been 17 months. She's almost a year and a half old. And she's doing all kinds of things that a year-and-a-half kid would do. Like climbing. Or at least attempting to climb. She started a few weeks ago by trying to climb on the couches at home and at camp. These attempts were foiled at the time by either one of us removing her from the object of desire or her own short legs failing to meet the target. However, in the last week or so she has managed to conquer that and can climb up on many objects. I went in to get her up the other morning and found her trying to get her foot up on the bed railing. It's too high for her, but it didn't daunt her. She just kept swinging her chubby little leg up as high as it would go. This past weekend at camp, I was with her on the screened-in porch facing the lake and she was wandering around, poking at things. Then she would grasp the window ledges and try to swing her leg up to this pole that runs around the outside walls, about two feet off the ground. She wanted to get her foot on this pole so she could boost herself up to see out the screened window. What she almost succeeded in doing, however, was putting her foot between the pole and the wall, which would leave her straddling it, subjecting her to a fall. Everytime I managed to get her away, she'd wander back and try it again. Then she managed to get herself into a child-size white plastic lawn chair. She'd sit the right way for a minute, then turn her body so that she could be on her knees on the seat, then she'd stand on the unstable chair, grab the window ledge and try to climb even higher, swinging her leg up even more. I'd have to pull her down over and over again. She gets frustrated and cries. She'll try to put her foot up on just about anything to get a boost up, it's almost instinctual. She's also trying to converse, even if what she's saying isn't clear. But she uses intonations for questions and statements. She'll also repeat, using the same "words" so I know she's trying to get her point across. I'm still trying to get her to say please when she wants something, but she's a stubborn little thing.

This weekend, she started playing a game, so she certainly has a sense of humor. She'll pretend to sneeze. She'll go, "Eh, eh choo!" and cover her nose and mouth with her hands. Then she'll want you to do it, and will even say the "Ah, ah, ah choo" along with you. Then she laughs hysterically, over and over and over and over.

At the lake this weekend, I told her to get her blue socks out of the laundry basket in the living room. I pointed at the basket, across the room, and told her to bring me the blue socks. She went over, didn't quite know what I was saying and headed back to me. I said, "Get your blue socks." She went back, pulled out her blue socks and brought them over to me. She said, "Ocks?" Yes, socks. "Ocks?" yes, they're you're socks. This went on a good couple of minutes while I put them on her feet. "oos?" Yes, your shoes. "Oos?" Yes, shoes. It's so much fun to see things click and develop before your eyes, unless she's actually poking you IN the eyes when you ask, "Where are my eyes?" Then that just hurts.