CLIMBER

We had our first ever parent-teacher conference last week, and Bella's teacher, Brandy, said that basically Bella is adjusting well at school. She also noted that Bella is a climber, and both her parents nodded their heads in total agreement.

Apparently, at school Bella watches other older kids try to (and succeed with a) climb onto the dining table in the classroom. She then heads over and tries the same maneuver. At home, Bella began kicking her leg way up high in things soon after she started school. I first noticed it in the bathtub one night when she kicked her heel up onto a washcloth bar as if she was going to scale the very wall of the shower. Since then it's nothing for Bella to put a peg up on anything she's around to measure if it is climbable or not.

Earlier this week, she finally mastered the art of climbing onto the easy chair in the living room. Squeak the cat used to nap there, basking in the sunlight and out of reach of all toddlers' grasps. Not anymore. And watching Bella make the ascent onto the chair reminded me of how I used to climb things when I was just starting out, too. She stands up as tall as she can, leans forward to get as much of her body onto the surface of the seat, kick a foot up, and use her face as a kind of grappling hook to get traction and forward progress enough so she's mostly on the chair.

At Fellini's pizza tonight, she did the same thing with a plastic chair in the courtyard by the fountain. That was after she had said "hi!" to a little girl outside through a screen about 100 times, so we moved our meal outside so she and the other kids could play around. By the time we were done eating, Bella had said "hi!" to four different tables and made them all smile. As Jen said when we were driving home - exhausted after a long night with little sleep and two festivals around Atlanta today - no matter how tired we are, we always find new strength when we see how much joy Bella can bring to others. Except the tall skinny white boys at Fellini's. They are tough nuts to crack.