Got Mischief?

We Bears are no strangers to mischief, and Keira has done her fair share of mess-making and rule-breaking. As Bear said the other night, as the firstborn child, she had to be a "mischief pioneer," coming up with diabolical schemes entirely on her own. One thing she's never done much of, however, is climbing; she is, in fact, the only kid we know who never even tried to escape her crib.

On the contrary, our second-born promises to be double trouble in the mischief department, because she is already a) a climber and b) trying to copy everything her big sister does.

A child who can drag a stepstool to an optimal location, and climb it in search of mischief, before the age of 13 months must be both admired and feared. Tables, chairs, the stepladder (which Keira still calls the "up-up-up," and nobody had better EVER tell her it's called anything else!), the slide, and Keira's stepstool are all fair game as far as Elliana is concerned; and my favorite part is that, in every one of these pictures, she looks like she's making a commercial for mischief.

"See? Look how easy it is!"


"You, too, can climb up slides!"


"Climbing the steps is good fun, too!"



"Don't YOU want to reach Mommy's toothbrush, too?"


"Stepstools: the greatest invention EVER for the vertically challenged!"


"Now those elusive DVD's can be well within your reach!"


"Did I mention the part about climbing the slide?"

Thanks to Bear's dad, most of our tall furniture is already bolted to the walls, but we do have one or two left to secure ASAP. We called Keira "Monkeys" when she was this age, but Ellie is showing herself to be much more deserving of that nickname than her sister was!

Here's a video of Ellie hopping in her car and saying "Bye!"...and "Bye!"...and "Byeeeee!"....and "Bye!" some more:

Mischievous? Yes. Cute? Definitely!