Oh, to be a little bit taller!!

This morning, when D.R. and I went to pick-up the boys from our church nursery, we found a very patient woman trying desperately to keep Dex and Jax from climbing EVERYTHING in the room! There seemed to be nothing they didn't want to climb... chairs, tables, shelves... she said she was momentarily able to bribe them to halt their climbing endeavors with animal crackers, but by the time we arrived, they were definitely losing their appeal!
Now, the question is, how do we curb this zeal for climbing which seems to be at the very core of their being? If it is their nature to climb, are all of our efforts futile? As I've previously posted, our kitchen chairs are semi-permanently kept either on top of the table, where they are (for the time being) too high to reach, or slid far under the table, where they are no fun to climb. The kitchen pot-rack is blocked off by our kitchen table (which even makes it hard for Mama to reach the pots and pans!), the piano bench is slid far under the piano... and we are getting far-too-used to intercepting a climbing boy from his high-summit destination. What more can we do? Will they forever want to scale the walls? How is it that I have friends whose children have never even dared create a todller-built staircase to the ceiling when it seems to be the primary objective of my little Dex and Jax? Seriously, the other day, I found that they had arranged their toys from small to large, to form a rickety trail to the very top of our upright piano. Imagine my horror, as I try to stop two little boys from falling five-feet down!

Anyway, it certainly adds excitement and adventure to our days! In the meantime, I'm trying to create safe climbing opportunities for them. They LOVE standing on kitchen chairs to help me cook. In the top photo, they're assisting Auntie T prepare for an afternoon of krumkake-baking... Jax with the whisk, Dex with the bowl. They also enjoy using their rocking horse as a means to reach the light-switch. In the smaller photos, Dex demonstrates this fun game.