we have a nightly ritual around here. sharing our daily experiences, a little television, dinner, baths, bed…probably much like what you do. after the babies are in the bed comes the time when daddy and i get to relax, breath, relax…but i am afraid those days have come to an end. our sir dantes has discovered how to get over his baby gate!

i had a crazy week at work. i looked forward to nothing more than coming home and relaxing tonight. my husband and the babies had a very active day as well. the trip downtown nashville for lunch and the park should be enough to wear any child out. right? so i felt fairly confident that after dinner and a bath both babies would be out like a light and i could enjoy a quiet evening. i’d be able to recoup after a crazy week and get ready for the weekend.

Follow up:

everything was going according to plan. i came home and hugs and kisses were shared all around. dinner was served and we had a short visit with aunt joy. i bathed the babies and tucked them in. it was only about 8:30. nice. going to plan. i joined my sweetheart in the sunroom to unwind a little. well, about thirty minutes ago the relaxing evening came to a sudden halt. the sunroom door opened and who was standing there but sir dantes.

now, how did he get out of his room? we have a great baby gate. it is even difficult for me to open. “well”, said daddy, “maybe i forgot to close the gate when i went to check on him and give him a kiss.” okay. so i picked up sir dantes and said, “let’s go back to bed”. when i got to his room i discovered that daddy had shut the gate and sir esmond had gotten out by moving his chair to the gate and climbing over. that’s easy to solve. we moved the chair out of his room. problem solved.

well, not so fast. within a couple of minutes he was back out of his room. how? this is not good. sir dantes is a runner and he knows what keys are for. he knows how keys are used. if he can get out of his room at night and find the keys….i don’t even want to think about it.

well, i waited and watched. he just hoisted himself up with his arms and kicked his leg over (he is tall for a four year old). great. well, tonight will be a sleepless night. of course we will not go to bed until we are certain he is out. we will lock every single door and make sure that anything that could hurt him is out of sight. we will hide all of the keys. and tomorrow we will install a new door on his room.

in our garage we have one more storm door. it is black iron just like the ones to the front door and the back door. it is like a gate. it is not solid but it does have an actual lock. we will have no choice but to lock him in his room at night.

it sounds cruel, but we can not risk him getting outside while we are sleeping. he is way too young to realize all of the dangers. it is not a solid door; it is more like a full-sized baby-gated door. with a lock. it bothers me.

but, it would bother me more to not put the door on and him find a way to get outside in the middle of the night. not long ago i posted a survey which stated that about 40% of autistic children are “runners”. and in the last year about 10% of those children died as a result of their running. those percentages are just to high for us to risk.

if anyone has any other ideas before i go with the full-sized locking door…please, please share them with me. thanks.