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Luke gets Lost

Luke loves to "garden"--- he will sit digging in the dirt for up to 30 minutes at a time (he might sit for longer, but I have never let him). The other day we were by the back door gardening, when I heard the girls screaming inside. I went in to find they were fighting, and left Luke a few feet away gardening happily. I even left the door open so he could come and find me.

When I went outside again, I thought I could hear him around the corner playing in the leaves, but when I went to check on him he wasn't there. I didn't worry yet, I walked around the house. Then through the house. Then around the house again, but this time I was starting to get frantic. I went into the house through the back door and heard someone (an adult) at the front door. I ran up the stairs, and there was our neighbor holding a screaming Luke. The big problem was that it was our neighbor from across the street. He had been using his weed whipper, turned around and saw Luke standing there, screaming.

Luke recovered quickly from the trauma, although he had little blisters on some of his toes from crossing the street (they healed overnight). I am still recovering, although I think the answer is that Luke has a much shorter leash for a long time. It didn't seem like I was dealing with the girls for a long time, but it was longer than I thought and Luke is quicker than I thought. I think he looked up from gardening, saw I was gone, went around the house to the front yard, saw the neighbor and went for help. Thank God there were no cars driving down the road...

I don't know that Eleanor or Amanda would have gotten that far that fast. I am needing a bit of adjustment to raise Luke, and a bit more imagination for the trouble a 15 month old will get into.

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