Our Little Climber

One of my birthday gifts from Kevin back in November was a membership to Gymboree for Riley and I. It was such a perfect, thoughtful gift. We love to take her to her weekly class and open gym times and watch her explore, play and climb around. She is very social with everyone and loves to jibber jabber to anyone who will listen. It's amazing to watch her begin to learn the routine and structure of the classes. She knows when she hears a tambourine rattle that the teacher is about to start a new activity. She knows that the large parachute means that it's bubble time. She heads for the same slide each week. The minute we enter the facility, she knows exactly where to go to enter the play area and reaches at the door. It's such a joy for Kevin and I each week.

Her climbing skills have accelerated at a ridiculous speed over this past month. It was the difference of night and day between two open gym sessions there. It was December 30th when I took her to open gym and was shocked at how well and quickly she was climbing up steep wedges and inclines - she had never done that as well before! Not only are her climbing skills moving at rapid speed at Gymboree, but also at home. Thus the reason I had to move at warp speed myself to get onto Amazon.com and order a crib tent for her room. Riley - at 13 months old - is trying to climb out of her crib. Her mattress is at the lowest setting. She wears at sleepsack. She simply has incredible arm strength that allows her to pull herself up high enough on the rail of her crib and then get her belly balanced on there so that her feet are no longer touching her mattress and her arms are reaching out in front of her. She is basically a human teeter-totter. We know this because it was around midnight Sunday night/Monday morning as I watched in horror over the video monitor before Kevin and I whisped into her room and got her before an accident occured.

Here's a picture of the assembled tent on her crib:

I don't think that this is a bad thing - I just think it is something that is coming very early in the game. She certainly isn't old enough or big enough - in our opinion - to transition to a toddler bed yet, so the crib tent was actually our only other option. She actually hasn't even really noticed any difference - at least nothing that has interupted her sleep patterns or made bedtimes difficult. She's adapted faster than I have and I am thankful for that.