Jack and the Beanstalk

Some kids are climbers. They'll climb on anything and everything, just to do it and to see what's up there. Aiden wasn't one of those kids. Jack on the other hand...yeah, he's a climber. While we don't have any beanstalks around here (or trees of any kind), he's found plenty of other things to scale.

For instance...I had a small toy organizing bin under the window in the boys' playroom. You know the kind, with a wooden frame and canvas boxes that set in it to keep the toys organized. While the very concept of that has become somewhat of an exercise in futility, I have caught Jack many times using it as a stepping stone to climb onto the window sill and spy on the backyard. He has also used the oven door on the play kitchen to climb up and stand on the top of the play stove.

But the kicker happened yesterday. Keep in mind that Jack is only 11 months old, not that he's letting his lack of years or experience stop him. He likes to play the piano. I don't mind this, in fact I usually encourage it, as long as nobody is sleeping. Yesterday I went into the living room to put on a movie for Aiden when I hear the tinkling of the piano keys coming from the family room where Jack and I had been playing. No big deal, he plays the piano all the time. Only this time, he decided to do things a bit differently. In the 2 minutes that I was in the living room with Aiden, Jack pushed a box over to the piano, used it to climb onto the piano bench, and in turn used the piano bench to climb on top of the piano and started tapping the keys with his feet.

Yes, you read that correctly. I walked back into the family room and just about had a heart attack to see my little baby standing on the piano. Not only that, but he was only barely holding on with one hand. He smiled at me and gave me a look that said, "Look Ma! No hands!" He was so incredibly proud of his musical accomplishment that he didn't notice all of my hair turning gray in the span of about 4 seconds.

Of course, I had to call and tell my mother, since it's her piano. She laughed.

Jack's a sneaky little turd. Just because he's cute doesn't mean he's a little angel. Far from it, in fact. I have a feeling that he's going to give me 10 times more trouble than Aiden in the years to come. He has a face that screams, "but I'm innocent!", and he knows how to use it....