So about a week and a half ago Michelle left to go run an errand one evening. I was watching the kids and decided to do the dishes. The three kids were going to go in and out of the garage a few times just playing around, I didn't think anything of it. As I was finishing the dishes I realized that Courtney was watching TV and the other 2 were still in the garage, for maybe about 5 min. "What are they doing in there?" So I go into the garage, and the garage door is open 2 feet and no kids in sight! Andrew stood on something to be tall enough to push the button and Lauren and him escaped. I found them about three houses down, knocking on doors attempting to find friends to come play. I brought them back home and we had a little discussion about what happened. Three days later on my way home from work, guess what Michelle tells me happened? She was doing something, and Andrew stood on something in the garage without her knowledge, opened the garage door and took Lauren on another adventure through the neighboorhood knocking on friends' doors to see if they could play. So I made a detour to Lowe's on my way home and installed a box around the garage door button. The box is a pain in the rear to open, I can barely open it, there's no way a 4 year old can open it and get out, right. Since we already had the discussion of not going out the garage, and he did it again, we decided to make it impossible for him to get out. Fast forward a few days to this morning. Right around 7 am Michelle and I wake to one of our neighbors walking into our bedroom! She says Andrew and Lauren were pounding on her door wanting to come play! How in the world does my 4 year old open that box that I can barely open and get out? Well, sure enough, there was something pulled under the button to open the garage door, but he had no luck. Looking around, he had opened up the door to Michelle's van, and searched for the garage door opener, opened the garage door, and the only way I know how he did it was he left the van door open. So again we have the discussion about leaving the house without your parents. At this point we lock Andrew in his room, you see, when we moved into this house, his room was set up with the door handle inside-out so you could lock it from the outside. Well about three minutes later Andrew is walking around the house again! How in the world did he do that?!? His door was locked. Sure enough, he unplugged a lamp in his room, dragged it over to the door, and used the metal prongs to pick the lock. What kind of kid do I have. That incites us even more. We talk with Andrew some more about listeneing to our parents and not going outside by ourselves, that we can only go outside when we have our parents with us. he informed us he wasn't alone that he took Lauren along. Well yeah, but that's worse that you took your 2 year old sister aolong. That's when he had the audacity to say "But Heavenly Father is watching me." Like that gives him permission to go wondering the streets Sat. morning before 7 am, because Heavenly father is watching him. Really?!?!? This is from a 4 year old. I didn't start sneaking out of the house until I was a teenager (Mom, Dad, I never really snuck out of the house without you knowing :) What am I going to have to deal with in another 9 years? What a crazy kid. So sorry to all my neighbors who had kids banging on their door early Sat. morning. We now have to make a concious effort to lock our car doors while in the garage, so that we don't have a four year old find the garage door opener and escape. Lesson learned. Any suggestions how we stay one step ahead of a four year old, I'm pretty sure he's already passed my level of understanding and deviousness.
