Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Freedom

We've crossed into dangerous territory in the Land of Bean.

This morning, Sophie began banging on her door at the unholy hour of 5:30am. This is at least an hour earlier than her usual, which was in itself a half an hour earlier than we had gotten used to. And I am no morning person. I would prefer waterboarding to being awakened before the sun. The last thing I wanted to do was pry myself out of the warm, soft embrace of my 500 thread counts, but when your kid is banging on their door with all their might, you get up.

So just as I was finally dragging myself out of bed, I heard the click of her door and the pounding of little feet as Sophie freed herself from the confines of her room and came running into our room. We knew that she could open some of the other doors in the house, but so far the antique-y ones on the bedrooms were beyond her capabilities. I thought it might be a one time thing, though, that I hadn't latched the door all the way the night before.

Wrong.

Tonight, when I put her down, she waited until I walked out before climbing up onto the end of her bed, from which she dangled herself off in just such a way as to get a couple of fingers on the doorknob and open the door. And just like that, she was free. I saw all of this on the crib cam, while I stood just outside her door, after which I pounced into her room with an "AHA!", catching her in the act. I called out to Neil and after a brief discussion, we got one of the doorknob cover thingies from another door to put on her inside knob.

We're both a little weirded out about essentially locking her in there, but the possibility of waking up to mini-me climbing on my head, or worse, the havoc she could wreak on other parts of the house overpowers any concerns we might have.

I'm going out to buy more doorknob covers today.

*She can scale every gate we've brought into the house, so putting one at her door isn't really an option.

16 comments:

  1. Don't overthink the locking her in thing. We had to do it to Isabel and Gabe, and it was the best thing we could've done. Once they knew they couldn't get out, they stopped trying and just went to sleep.

    It's better than 241-KIDS showing up on your doorstep, after finding your kid out playing in the street when you thought they were asleep...

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  2. Wow! She's like a little mountain goat! I'm so scared for those days and I know they will come to my house as well!

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  3. You are going to have your hands full. And make sure you keep your ... ahem ... 'personal stuff' under LOCK AND KEY.

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  4. Good idea. Kids are so inventive aren't they? And smart.

    Plus you don't want her popping in during 'special' times either, lol.

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  5. We have to do it too. I results of not are bad, trust me on this one.

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  6. We had one on O's door too, and am fully prepared to do the same on N's room when and if I ever move her out of her crib. Do you think I can keep her in it until she's five??

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  7. I'm all for locking 'em in. Don't sweat it.

    Sophie is clearly a genius. I just hope she uses her door opening/gate climbing skills for good, once she's grown up.

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  8. We locked my son in after I caught him getting into his vitamins in the middle of the night!!

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  9. A climber, eh? FABULOUS. I had to instill, quite early with Corinne, that she was in BIG DOODOO if she went anywhere other than the bathroom or my bedroom in the middle of the night. As in, idle, middle of the night, sleepless threats.

    She's ok now. But I know your fear!

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  10. You're cool until she figures out the doorknob cover!

    I do have to say that we have a mighty tall, mighty strong gate that the Bub has never managed to scale. It was hard to find though!

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  11. the lesser of two evils, for sure.

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  12. If only children were dumber - my friend's ST BERNARD could not get over the gate as a puppy and apparently assumes that now. He runs up to it and wags his ginormous tail until you come and "free" him.

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  13. OK it must have been the moon...Shea got up at 3:00am...and would not go back to sleep..until 11 when I was unable to nap with her!!!! She's 3 1/2, nothing keeps her in!

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  14. Doorknob covers rock. I keep my kids locked in their rooms for "rest break" (nap in big beds) with doorknob covers. No problem. Fortunately we are still in cribs at night, their choice.

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  15. at least you can get her to sleep IN her room - I failed - so miserably at this!!

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  16. We were lucky with our daughter. While she moved out of the crib and into a "big girl" bed at 26 months (to make room for her little brother in the crib), she never realized that she could get out of said "big girl" bed on her own until she was nearly 4 years old. Seriously. She would just hang out in bed in the morning and call for me to come and get her up. AND she was a late sleeper (until 9 am). Unfortunately I only got to enjoy this fully for two months before her little brother was born and had me up at all hours of the night and morning anyway.

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Give me some sugar, baby!