Lately, Samantha has been experimenting with falling. I think it started after we put her on the slide at the playground. She’ll climb on a sofa, guitar case, bed, stack of chairs or teddys, and then she gets this look in her eyes… lets see what it feels like to fall
It’s always very controlled and very safe. She even experiments with falling backwards in her crib as part of her pre-sleep ritual.

On the way to the border today we stopped at a cute little jungle cafe just north of Chiang Rai for lunch. Samantha was enjoying being the little explorer that she is – climbing on furniture and up and down stairs, playing in the water fountain, socializing with other patrons. This girl can go, especially when she’s been cooped up in a car seat for 3 hours!

I decided it was time to reign her in and feed her something. She was sitting on the bench beside me, enjoying my pasta salad, but then decided the plants behind us were far more interesting. Both Sean and I were keeping a close eye on her, aware of the 4 foot drop from the veranda.

Silly Mum! I turned to take a bite of pasta, and Samantha reaches out to grab a leaf that is calling out to her.
Samantha! Samantha! You know you want to touch me!
I turn back and her legs are in the air, and she’s going down. I grabbed her shirt and she flipped so that when she hit the ground she was on her back. I stood there like a doofus, starring into my precious daughter’s eyes. In a split second, Sean was over the rail and had her in his arms. She didn’t even cry. Just a whimper. Within a minute or two she was smiling again.

We both checked her over real good. She had a bump on her forehead, a very strange place – then I realized that my attempt to catch her had caused her to hit the decking. It looked really bad, and I was just wanted to cry. I spent the next hour watching her very closely to make sure that she didn’t have a concussion. By the time we arrived at the border, it was clear that the bump wasn’t as bad as we thought. whew!

I am amazed at how tough my daughter is. As we were packing up, she climbed back up onto the bench, went to the railing and surveyed the scene. Then she smiled and leaned forward a little, reaching out for the plant.
AAAhhhhhh! They have formed a bond!
But Sean had a tight hold on her shorts, so this time she wasn’t going anywhere.