Independence

Sylvia is starting to be too independent for her own good. She likes to go play outside, you know where you have to put on all the snow clothes/ boots and paraphernalia, only to have her spend two minutes outside. Then come in again saying 'brrrrrrrrr! cold!' About fifteen minutes of work, for two minutes of outside time.

She often also runs around naked in the house, puts on her boots, demands the door to be opened, and tells me 'brrrrrrrrr! cold!' and explains i'd better close that door again. Very cute.

Tonight, she was half naked and did the boots thing again, but also insisted on her snow suit. I knew it was going to be an 'open door and decide not to go outside' event, so I just kind of hung the suit on her, using the hood. She went outside, I closed the door behind her, and monitored her through the window.

She went to the stairs, I expected her to turn around. She didn't. She went down the stairs. Still didn't turn around. She went over the snow and the grass, still kept going. Now I wondered whether she maybe wanted to go to our neighbor's house, since she had played there earlier today. I slipped on some boots and followed her. She did not notice me.

She went down the driveway, didn't take the turn to the neighbor's. Walked down the street, still not noticing me. Looked like she was going for a walk. After a while, she finally noticed me, and I asked her whether she was ready to go home yet. An empathic 'No!' was her answer. Mind you, she was still half naked, with snow suit draped over her back. I decided to just follow her and see how long she lasted. But first needed to dress her more, since this was more than the one or two outside minutes I had been anticipating.

Putting on a snow suit while standing is not easy, since we couldn't sit down on the snow anywhere. But I finally did get it done, without covering us in too much snow. The walk continued. And continued. I would occasionally ask whether she wanted to go home yet, and she would vehemently deny that possibility.

We walked and we walked and we walked till she finaly decided that I could carry her now, and I could sneakily get us closer to home. What fun! It's amazing how she was going to make this walk all by herself. Too independent for her own good. Now if only she could go to the bath room all by herself too!