Neither my DS4 nor DS6 were climbers or really risk takers at all. DD2, on the other hand, climbed long before she could walk. At 10mo I found her standing on top of a table after she climbed a chair, at 20 months she climbed to the top of DS6's bunk bed, and right at 2 she climbed the rock climbing wall on our play set and got into the tower. Luckily, she generally has enough sense to not try to come back down unless she's sure she can.
She is constantly into things, I can't get one mess cleaned up and she's on to something else. But, she's so purposeful about it and if you watch her you can see that she's trying to answer some question that it's not just for the fun of destructing.
She infers things from her explorations and observations. She learned her ABCs and counting to 11 just by listening. She has an amazing vocabulary, not because she will sit still for stories, but from listening to the rest of us speak. It seems to me that her drive to climb is indicative of a need to learn through exploring and experimenting.
My sons both were very compliant, they get very frustrated when thwarted or not allowed to do things their own way, but it doesn't occur to them to push on and do it anyways or find a way around me. She just can't seem to stop herself. If we put a lock on something, it's like a new puzzle to solve before she can get to the original one. She thrives on the challenge.
Just based on observations, I would say that DD2 shows more signs of being GT at 2 than the boys did. They both reached 4 and blossomed, she's not waiting that long. Whether or not she'll keep surging ahead of them, I don't know. She might just be more "showy" at 2 than they were and she'll end up being even with the boys at 4.
