An incredibly resourceful toddler has managed to repeatedly outsmart her parents in order to score some extra playtime.
Twenty-two-month old Ella from Texas typically goes to bed earlier than her big brother, Luke. But despite being tucked into her crib, the little girl surprised her parents on several occasions by sneaking out to play past her bedtime.
Unsure of how she did it, mom Becca, 32, set her cell phone up to record Ella in action — and caught the pigtailed escape artist using some very creative means to get out of bed.
Caught in the act! A mom used a camera to catch how her toddler daughter was escaping her crib
Nap time! Twenty-two-month old Ella was put down for a nap, and her mother Rebecca, 32, left her phone recording
Making a cushion! The Texas toddler threw everything in her crib, including several blankets, onto the floor
‘Ella goes to bed early and I go to bed early too,’ mother Becca explained, ‘but my husband takes my son out to play.’
But while Rebecca is sleeping and her husband is looking the other way, three-and-a-half-year-old Luke is wandering into his little sister’s room to get her to join .
‘We’ve noticed recently that he’s been sneaking in to get his sister out to play,’ she went on ‘My husband and I have been wondering how our daughter gets out of her bed at night.’
Ella sleeps in a crib with high walls along the sides, which is itself several inches off the ground. Even if she managed to get up over one of the sides, it’s quite a drop to the floor.
Cutie: The resourceful little girl managed to get out without getting hurt
More fun! She likes to get out to play with her big brother, Luke, who is three and a half
Here we go! She clearly has quite a bit of upper body strength, and pulls herself up
‘I knew she was climbing out but I wanted to see for myself,’ her mom said
Stumped, Ella set up her phone to record video of Ella after she went down to a nap to see just how she managed it.
‘I knew she was climbing out but I wanted to see for myself,’ she said.
In the video, Ella can be seen for a moments kicking the side of the crib while drinking her bottle. Over it, she stands up and throws her bottle over the side and onto the floor.
Dressed in adorable white and pink pajamas with her hair in two tiny pigtails, she then turns around picks up a blanket, and tosses it over the edge too.
Genius! She safely climbs out, lands on the pile of blankets, and grabs her mom’s phone
Thanks, bro! Ella has also had some help from her brother to get out of the crib
The blanket is followed by all of her toys — she’ll need those once she’s escaped — and three more blankets, all tucked into the crib to keep her cozy.
Having built up enough of a cushion on the floor on the other side, Ella then pulls herself up over the side, using her feet to help, before crashing over the edge on top of the pile of blankets.
Then, quite humorously, she wobbles over to her mother’s still-recording camera phone, picks it up, and carries it out of her room with her.
In another video, Luke can be seen helping Ella out by pushing the crib up to his parents’ bed and tipping it forward with all of his strength. Ella then manages to crawl up and out onto the bed.