I believe my little sister Gracie is either a monkey or a future American Olympic gold medallist. The little daredevil loves to climb. She is fearless when it comes to heights. From the time she learned to walk she would find a way to climb on top of things.

It was not long after she learned how to walk she learned to open the dishwasher door and then crawl on top of it to reach for drinks and food that were on the cabinet. When we are not looking we have found her standing on top of the kitchen cabinet before. She wiggled herself out from underneath her highchair tray and then she made her way on to the cabinet. Talking about a heart attack, I think my mother had one that day. Needless to say my mother made it very clear to Gracie to NEVER do that again.

Another time she has crawled on the back of our living room furniture and tried to balance herself on the backrest. Once again my mom and dad have made it clear the living room furniture is not a jungle gym and to STAY OFF!

Since the kitchen cabinets and the living room furniture is now off limits she now uses us as monkey bars. My mom, dad and I can be kneeling down and she thinks this is an open invitation to run and crawl on top of us. We try to pry her off of us and her little monkey arms and legs wrap around our bodies holding on for dear life to not be removed. There is nothing like your head being used as the peak of Mt. Everest.

Finally her latest thing has been to crawl on top of my mom and dad’s headboard on their bed. She knows exactly where to put her feet to help her climb up there. Once again, as you can imagine my parents let Gracie know that the headboard is off limits.

Even though she has been banned from these places to climb I can see in her eyes that she is looking for her next great high top adventure. Maybe we better hide the extension ladder so she does not make her way up to the roof. I wonder if Kristi Yamaguchi started out this way?