House of Independence

I got up at my usual early hour, and not hearing Luke, I went into the furniture-free living room to read a magazine. Not two minutes later I hear footsteps and the sound of the door opening, and there was Luke, rubbing his eyes as if he couldn't believe it himself. Luke was completely unable to open the doorknobs at our "old" house and so when he woke up he would always call out for me. But here he can open the door to his bedroom and the door to the hallway, so there's really nothing stopping him from, say, waking up and sauntering into the kitchen for some breakfast. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but we're going to have to rethink our whole child-proofing strategy.

It's true, though; something about this new house seems to make Luke more independent. Remember, this is a guy who generally wants to be carried even on a playground. At the new house there's carpet on the stairs, and you can see your goal from the bottom of the steps, so he's perfectly happy to clamber up himself. Compare that to the old house where he wouldn't even think of walking up or down on his own. He'll also walk down the walkway by himself, walk out into the backyard, and even walk right into the hot tub (though we had to make a rule banning that right away). All in all, I'm glad to see him feeling more confident and self-sufficient and I think it's a good trend to come.

Speaking of other good trends: We met our first neighbor today and had a longer conversation with her than we've had with all other neighbors combined. She even went back into her house to get Luke an orange, because he had seen her eating one and it gave him a sudden craving. I think it's going to be good here. As I told Dave, we only have one more (albeit gigantic) hurdle before we can fully settle in here, but once we do, I'm going to think he's brilliant.