What an interesting week it's been! Katie has been demonstrating her ability to stay one step ahead of us. I believe I already mentioned the time she escaped out of the garden gate, several months ago. Well, Wednesday she discovered that she can unbolt the front door and disappear that way too. I'm so lucky that I was just in the next room when I heard the front door swing open. Thank goodness it makes a unique swishing noise that I recognized immediately. I dropped everything and sprinted (waddled) after her. She is FAST! She made it almost all the way to the next cul-de-sac before I caught her. I'm really glad she likes to run on the sidewalk instead of into the street, but still!
So I went to Target in search of a solution. We have lever door handles on every door of our house, which, in addition to being decorative, are extremely toddler-friendly. They're not parent-friendly, though - not if the parent prefers to keep her toddler from running out the front door. They do sell childproof locks for lever handles, but they are pretty complicated to install. So I got an idea. I bought a three-pack of those round doorknob covers, but instead of snapping them onto the door handle, I put them around the deadbolt! It's totally working! I also put one on the hot-water valve under the bathroom sink (which she loves to play with) and the hose outside. Woohoo!
The next day, Anthony and I were sitting in the living room gloating over the success of these new devices. We were comparing notes on how long it takes each of us to catch Katie when she gets away. All of a sudden I realized I hadn't heard her make noise in a few minutes. I went to make sure the back gate was latched. It was. But then, I realized...THE GARAGE DOOR WAS OPEN! She'd snuck out that way and run around to the front, undoubtedly right past the living room windows while we sat there! I started running and calling her name, and finally found her four houses down, playing with a neighbor's lawn ornaments. WOW.
Since then, we've been extra-vigilant about the garage door. We haven't had any front-door or garage door escapes for the past three days. But...
Just to keep us on our toes, Katie has also decided to escape from her crib. The first night she did it was Friday, when Grammy was watching her. Grammy has been having zero success with putting Katie to bed, so we told her she might have to put Katie in the crib and let her cry. (Which we HATE doing!) Grammy did that, and soon after heard a big THUMP! followed by Katie opening her bedroom door. Not good. We figured it was because Grammy had also been unable to put on Katie's sleep sack, which generally prevents her from getting her leg up high enough to climb out of the crib. However, last night Katie managed to climb out, sleep sack and all. At 4am. And wouldn't go back to sleep until 4:45. Sigh.
So now we're going to have to convert Katie's crib to a mini toddler bed with a guard rail. I don't like the idea of doing this, because it means Katie may be getting up at all hours of the night and coming to find us. But I think it's the only safe thing to do. Apparently "crib tents" are no longer sold because of safety issues. Darn it, that would have been a really good solution to our problem.
Any tips on keeping kids in their own beds? I'm all ears!
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