Perhaps you guessed . . . Vanessa can get on counters and scale walls. She'll even stand on her head, using a wall or chair (or play yard for Grandma) and her feet to put her in the position. Her mommy was just thinking we could put away a gate or two, but now that Vanessa tries to help herself to everything in the kitchen, we'll leave the kitchen gate up a little longer. (Our knives are now on top of the fridge, but I'm not sure it won't be long before she finds a way to climb up there.) The drawer Vanessa is climbing into is without a safety latch because it's just toddler spoons, containers and bibs.
I would imagine some of you are wondering why I'm not intervening rather than taking pictures . . . Vanessa moves fast and she had already been caught getting into the drawer earlier in the day, so when I saw the wheels turning in her head, I pulled out the camera really fast to take the pictures, trying not to make it obvious that I knew what she was up to. Here's the first picture where I'm telling her that it's NOT okay to be up on the counters and in drawers. She explained that she just wanted to sleep in the drawer. :) When she knows she's not to be doing something and she gets caught, she then does whatever as fast as possible so she can complete her mission before being grabbed. (I get a little scared when I think about her adolescent years to come.)
