Evel Emmie Knievel

Alternately titled:

The one who's going to make me go completely gray.

My first 3 kids were what you might call vanilla.

Well behaved, quiet, ease-going, you get the picture.

When Noah was a baby, he was the sweetest baby you could imagine.

Then I got pregnant with Emmie (he was 8 months) and he suddenly

became 'boy wonder'. He was strong, determined, fast, and the worst

climber I'd ever known. He climbed all. the. time.

Even so, he was precious...sweet and loving, he could do most anything

and it was ok because he'd throw those little hands around my neck

and I was a goner.

Still am. Totally over the moon for that kid.

And all the rest too.

So, anyway.

Then along came Emmie. She wasn't like any of the other babies.

All the rest had been wonderful, quiet babies.

Emmie was not. It's not that she was really fussy...except that

she was. Well, more than the others, anyway. She fussed a lot

in the evenings, and HATED to be in the car.

Now, she's getting big. She still fusses when she doesn't get her

way, and has learned to throw fits. Not that they get her anywhere,

I guess they're just the thing to do at this age. And she still

hates to be in the car.

And now she, like her older brother, has discovered climbing.

She is more daring than her brother ever thought about being.

She climbs anything that can't climb her first. Any. thing.

At first it was simple things like the coffee table and the couches.

Then she realized she could use the couch to get onto the sofa

table as well-all the while, taking out anything that happened

to be in her way-pictures, lamps, whatever.

Then it was the piano. She climbed on the bench, up the front and

onto the back, again knocking off everything.

But the kicker happened yesterday.

She started hollaring,

"Momma-TUCK! TUCK, MOMMA!!"

Tuck=stuck.

And I cringed. Cause I knew.

I didn't know what exactly, but I knew.

I walked into the living room to find this:

Yeah, that's right. I took a picture of her hanging off the

OUTSIDE of the staircase. They're blurry cause I was

trying to hurry before she fell her little butt off.

She thinks it's hilarious-as you can tell from the second picture.

She's done it over and over and over.

We can't leave her alone in the living room anymore,

even for a second.

Ugh. I can just feel the gray hairs coming in.