The Lil' Monkey

Before dinner we headed out for a family walk. Ollie was all giddy with excitement because this meant 2 walks in 1 day! Very rare and special indeed (a doggy door comes in so handy, but to meet Ollie's exercise needs, not so much). Anyway, we took our usual route and ended up at the elementary school playground.

I was so impressed with Claire's climbing abilities. I knew that she was a good climber, balancer, scaler of walls, but it's usually noted at home when she's cleverly devised a make-shift ladder that will get her up and onto our hutch. Today's observation was on the 'big-kid' playground. (Quick note: the elementary school goes from K-5 [which is weird since ours went from K-3]. Because of the wide age range, the school has a 'big-kid' and 'little-kid' playground, the latter being fenced in and containing larger and shorter play sets for the younger ones.) Claire wasn't going to have anything to do with the little-kid playground and started climbing onto, into and up the big-kid play set. This meant the distance from one level to the next was about a foot higher, with a mini-step built into the wall to give the kids a little leverage. She took on the challenge and wiggled her way up to each new level without our assistance. When she wanted to come down, she would hold onto the door-frame and kind of slide her way down until her tip-toes were touching the lower level, then just let go. It was such an awesome sight to see! I'm so proud of my little monkey.