Miss Independent

Used to be that Leah would, for the most part, explore the area of the house where I was.  She might go into the other room, but she'd always be back within a few seconds.  Now all bets are off.  A couple weeks ago, I had just finished changing her and she took off out the door, which was normal.  She usually goes into my room and starts playing with whatever she can find in there, so I stayed and worked on cleaning up her room a bit.  Suddenly I heard the little gate we have at he entrance to the living room downstairs swing open and closed.  Surprised, I made a dash for the stairs, and saw that within a few seconds, Leah had gone downstairs, into the living room and was fawning over and kissing her little brother in the swing (she does her own (baby) version of baby talk with him that is a crack-up to see). 

Home isn't the only place she does this - at church she'll take off down the aisle, out the door and down the hall without even bothering to look back and see if we're coming.  I love that she is able to explore her world so much more now - but I do hope she learns a little bit of caution in the coming months/years!