No Boundaries

First, thank you for your patience. School started this week and we are adjusting to our new routine. As always, it'll be fine, but it always takes time to get into the groove.

LJ opens doors now. He has been demonstrating this ability for about a month. He's very proficient at doing it. Oh, and he can unlock them too. Really, this leaves us with 2 choices: 1) figure out a way to reconfigure the knobs so that he can't open them, or 2) discipline and an every-watchful eye. So far, we're going with #2...and it works, pretty well.

The first time the opening of doors was alarming was when we'd just returned from our camping trip. We had tuned into "Dora" and thought LJ would be engrossed (as he always is) enough that RJ and I could go unpack the trailer. As RJ and I are gathering the various items in the trailer, LJ appears in the doorway. This means that he, opened the door to the garage, foraged his way through the garage (not a task just anyone can tackle), and luckily, checked in at the trailer before heading off to some undesirable location. He had broken Dora's spell. With a chorus of "no, no"s, we corralled him back into the house with admonitions concerning the opening of doors.

Since then, we've had to be on our toes so far as the doors go. Blink and LJ is through the hall door and into his room trying to coax blanket and paci through the slats in his crib. There have been only a handful of sessions in the naughty chair that have resulted from door-opening behavior.

Last week, I was blow-drying my hair and LJ was curiously not wreaking havoc in the bathroom. I went to check on him and he was playing with his Legos - what a sweet child. About 3 minutes later, LJ appeared at the bathroom door with a laser level in his hands - offering it to me in hopes that I could "make it work". I knew that he must have been in the garage - AND, I had LOCKED the door. I walk into the kitchen to find the door wide open (such a newbie to this game - he didn't even try to cover his tracks) and there were several glass jars with various fasteners in them neatly lined up on the floor. I'm sure LJ had a great time arranging all of this and I hope he thought of it fondly as he subsequently spent time in the naughty chair.

He hasn't opened the door to the garage since.