I think it’s good to let toddlers play by themselves sometimes. It develops creativity and imagination. I like to close all the doors in the house except the one leading to her room, and of course the kitchen which leads to the playroom. That way she can run around the hallway to her heart’s content, and if she feels like playing in her room by herself, then by all means, she can go for it.
She loves going in her room and pulling all of her shirts off the hangers, pants off the shelf, and singlets out of the drawer. Mostly she just puts them on the ground, but she loves trying to put them on too. Often when she comes out of her room, she is running, giggles coming out of her mouth, 5 shirts around her waist, and a pair of underpants on her head.
Sometimes she sits in her room and pulls half the books off of her shelf, looking through each one as she goes. Upside down, right side up, it doesn’t matter, she looks at them just the same. She talks as she points to the pictures in her books “OH! Kangaroo! BIG Kangaroo!”
Usually I can hear her in her room, having a great time, giggles here, sentences there, thuds as pulls books off the shelves.
But the other day, it was quiet. She’d been in there for a while. Last time she was in there for a while being quiet, she had shut her door so I wouldn’t know what she was up to (CHEEKY!) and somehow managed to get a hold of her wipes, pulling nearly all of them out of the packet. When I went in, she jumped a little, knowing she isn’t meant to be getting out all the wipes. “Just one.” She told me nodding her head as she tried to take one more to wipe Mickey Mouse’s bottom. He was nicely laid on the change mat, ready for a nappy and a bottom wipe.
I went in her room, totally expecting to find an entire packet of wipes scattered about her room, a cheeky look on her face. As I approached the door, she started giggling. And jumping.
“How did you get in there?!”
More giggling. More bouncing. She was clearly very proud of herself, excited at her new feat.
She loves climbing in there now. She does it all the time. We asked her to do it for the camera last night, so here it is, little miss cheeky doing her new trick. Just keep in mind that despite being 22 months old, she is very small, at least 2 inches shorter than all of her friends, and she only weighs 10 kilos, so this isn’t really easy for her.
Just so you know, I only had a roll of masking tape around my wrist because I was in the middle of getting Baby Boy’s room ready for trim painting…..
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Mommy Adventures 
Is the side all the way up – it looks like it’s down a bit? We never put the side down at all now. haha. I just know she will climb out if I do, and I don’t want her experimenting. 😉 I love how proud of herself Hannah is in this video!!
Haha, yeah, I put it down to get her out, but it definitely goes up when I put her in it! I still didn’t think she could climb in though, it’s a long way up for such a little thing! She’s getting her big girl bed next weekend though
My kids have the same dead giveaway. When I suddenly notice that everything seems peaceful, I know something is up. I know it can’t be good.
Actually, Jayci, my 5-year-old, also has a evil cackling laugh that I have learned to key in on. When I hear that laugh, I know she is having a great time at someone else’s expense and pretty soon there will be some crying.
As for the climbing thing, I’m not sure why, but for some reason we have never had any problems with our kids climbing out of (or in to) their cribs. Good thing. I always worried I’d hear a bump on the floor one night and it would be their first attempt at jumping ship. So far we’ve been lucky.
Yeah, silence may *seem* like a nice idea…. Hannah climbed out of her cot one time months and months ago, but she hasn’t ever done it since. Luckily….
Like mother like daughter. You were little too, your height/weight chart had no dots on it because all your measurements were below the bottom line. And I remember a certain girl (and her cousin) who went trick-or treating dressed as a giant pair of underwear while wearing real underwear on their heads………