This kid is going to be a handful some day...

and that day is coming soon I fear...

It's no surprise to anyone who's met BR for even the briefest time, that she is an independent spirit. She's not much interested in cuddles or displays of affection, preferring solitaire exploration and discovery. She does not like to have books read to her, instead she insists on choosing the pages and pointing to what she is interested in (and you can then read it or tell her what she is pointing to). Since she's learned to crawl and especially walk with the help of Dad's hands and/or the couch, the ottoman and assorted other pieces of furniture, she will often get mad when I try to pick her up, because that is loss of control, and she will simply have none of it... And she generally refuses to come to you if you ask her, simply on principle. Even when I come to pick her up at daycare, she will only crawl over to me on her own terms, not if/when I ask her to.

And so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised this morning, when I handed her a giftbag with a nice big book in it (thinking "she loves books, especially big ones, this one is the biggest yet, she's bound to just love it") and asked her to open it up, and she simply took a quick look at it and crawled away. It took until the evening for her to actually decide she was now ready to discover the contents of the bag.

Later on, I took her into the basement with me while I was refilling the pellet stove. I have a little kid chair and table setup for her there, so she can sit and watch me while I mill around. Unfortunately she has been figuring out how to stand on the chair and then crawl up onto the tabletop. It's not very high, but she could still get quite hurt if she fell onto the concrete floor. And so I sternly told her not to climb onto the table. The little monkey looked at me with a wide, happy grin, shook her head sideways (to signal "no"), and then climbed up some more, visibly delighted to be doing something she shouldn't be. I may have to start calling her CM for Cheeky Monkey instead of BR!