Stairmaster and Horse Whisperer

Today my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. Zoe was playing with her toys in the living room so I decided to go collect the laundry upstairs. Although I do have gates at all of the stairs in my house, I neglected to close the one that goes up. Zoe has never gotten near the stairs, and I was only going to be gone a minute. I kept listening to her play while I collected the clothes and put them in the basket. Suddenly, it got eerily quiet. I peered down over the railing and didn't see anything, but decided I best go downstairs to check it out. I didn't have to go far. Zoe had climbed up the steps and was only 2 steps away from reaching the top! I didn't want to startle her, for fear of her falling backwards, so I very quickly grabbed her to safety. I am still wondering how on earth she navigated those steps, curved and wooden, in such a short time when she's never climbed up one step before. Must have been all that practice on her slide outside last week! This is a definite lesson for me - never again will I leave the gate unlocked.
When my nerves settled down a bit, I took Zoe for a long walk. We went to the Kleinzoo around the corner. Zoe is really starting to enjoy looking at all the animals. She got a real kick out of the ponies today. She seemed to be talking to them - she'd make a noise, and then the ponies would make a noise. She was giggling so much over this! She was also able to "talk" to the goats - and she sounded just like them!