I am in the mist of the
"Climbing" crazies of toddlerhood. I can understand our Neanderthal evolutionary need to stand up-right and thus the drive of babies to get up off their inefficiently grimy hands and scuffed knees means of locomotion. But where does that deep-seated desire for climbing come into play? If we evolved from ape-like creatures...we evolved and came DOWN out of the trees. But our little loved ones sure do give us a picture of our simian great, great, great times a 100,000 plus years of relatives. For instance: Skye loves loves bananas and has that short legged long upper body orangutanian like gait; she speaks many words, but much is still inaudible jibber-jabber and I swear sometimes I hear those oooh-ooh ahh-ahhs. No.... we aren't throwing shit here at home, but there is alot of animated "pee-pee and poo-poo"conversations (and given the chance, who knows, I might get smacked in the eye with a handful of shit yet one day).
Maybe the climbing aspect came from when it was safer for us to sleep in the trees (the enduring allure of bunk beds and lofts) away from the saber-toothed tigers that wanted to eat us that have since evolved into our pampered housemates. It makes sense that since our domesticated felines still retain many of their ancestral traits; I must assume we hold onto, particularly as children, our monkey-like antics. So as I did before with Canon at this stage, I am the freakishly indulgent parent that allows this dangerous behavior (supervised, if possible because I have to admit I sometimes catch the behavior in the mid or highest point of the climb) Do I rescue her from the height? Normally not. She needs to learn how to climb back down to earth in case she finds herself without assistance one day. Yes, there will come a day when climbing onto the grill, up the 2-story ladder in the garage, or onto the step stool she put on top of the coffee table will seem to her inappropriate and possibly mundane. Or maybe not. Skye might be, as is Canon, an adventurer at heart. One day looking down at earth from the canopy of the Costa Rican rain forest while looking eye to eye with a monkey on the next branch. Then, my hope will be (as I've taught them) that she and Canon can get down before the monkey throws the shit.
