Sigh

My little boy is growing up--quite literally this time. He must be going through quite a growth spurt, straight up. It doesn't show as much in the way his clothes fit (still solidly in 12 months clothes), but we had an experience this morning that proves it.

I woke up to an unusual sound. It sounded almost like a door opening and closing. Even in my groggy state, I had a vision of Patrick standing on his tiptoes and reaching for the doorknobs, something that was happening just a few days ago. He was still a couple of inches short at the time, but I suspected that figured into what I was hearing this morning.

Sure enough, when I got to Patrick's door, it was opening just barely from the inside and then closing right back. Patrick had reached the doorknob. It was late enough that I went ahead and let him out of his room (his rug and blankets were wadded up behind the door, keeping it from opening any farther than that inch Patrick had been opening it). He never had the satisfaction of letting himself out of his own room, though.

When Matt got up a short time later, we discussed what our options were now that Patrick can open and close doors. Patrick still can't be trusted to wander the house completely by himself, and I sleep like a brick these days, so we needed to be able to keep him in his room in the mornings until I could let him out. We quickly decided that as cruel as it sounds, we need to lock him in his room with the child lock on his doorknob. (By the way, I'm suddenly regretting that we have lever doorknobs; they are much too easy for a toddler to learn to use.) That way, he won't get up in the mornings and cause chaos in the house or hurt himself before waking me up. Since he's never been able to let himself out of his room, he won't even notice the transition.

Unfortunately, it's hard to suddenly remember to add that extra step in to putting him to bed. Patrick went down for a nap just a little while ago, and we forgot to lock him in. Yes, already. He wasn't as ready to sleep as we'd hoped, so he got up to play. His first destination was the door. Within seconds, he had opened the door and wandered out. I'm not playing that game with him, especially when he's this tired, so I promptly put him back in bed and locked the door behind me.

Of course, now he knows he can get out. He hasn't stopped crying since. I think part of it is exhaustion. Another part of it is frustration that he can't get out of his room now that he knows how. And I have to wonder if another part of it is disbelief that that's all it would have taken all these months to get out of bedtime and naptime.