I'm Outta Here!

Today started off with a bit of excitement. Rick was in the office by 8 am to start his work day, and like I do every day, I left the house to walk Eric up the driveway and to open the gate. As I have mentioned before our driveway is very long. It is almost 1/4 mile long, so it takes me a while to walk to and back from the gate. Today the garbage man had already come, so I grabbed the trash container from the side of the road and wheeled that behind me further slowing me down. Anyway, I had just passed the cars in the parking area when I looked up and there was Katie standing in the front yard. The immediate question that came to my mind was, "Why are Rick and Katie outside?" When I took a closer look at Katie and saw that she had sandals on and those sandals were on the wrong feet, I realized that Rick didn't dress her; therefore, Rick didn't bring her outside. Hence, Katie escaped from the house. I freaked a bit. Just the thought of her going down the front steps, steps that she always holds my hand to navigate, made me shiver and thankful that she made it without cracking her head on the sidewalk. Once I got her in the house, I was looking around to see how she managed to get the door open. It was then that I saw her little red table by the door. Apparently she climbed on top of that to open the door then jumped down and moved the table out of the way to exit the house. Despite the sleigh bells on the front door, Rick never heard her open or close the door so he was as shocked as I was that she outside. I have no idea how long she was outside because it took me at least 15 minutes to go the gate and then drag the garbage container back to the house.

In any case, shame on me for once again underestimating Katie's independent streak, her engineering capabilities, her self-sufficiency and her curiosity. Just when I think I "know" her she gets smarter. Speaking of smart, she did put on a sweatshirt and shoes before leaving the house because she knew it was going to be cold.

As I sit here and reflect on her morning excursion, it just occurred to me that Katie attempted to run away from home at the age of two. I don't think that there is a place for that milestone in her baby book.