Surprise! You're Gonna Give Mommy a Heart Attack!

Surprising Toddler Skill #1: Yesterday afternoon Donovan asked to go play outside in the patio, but said he wanted me to stay inside. "Mommy stay inside" he said, with that adorable little grin on his face. The patio is enclosed with a tall gate, and I can see him through the windows, so I have no problem letting him go play in his ride-on fire truck out there by himself.  Indeed, it was a very nice break to get some stuff done.

About 15 minutes later i started hearing our garage door opening and closing. Not the big door that lets the car in (I'm not even sure that one opens, honestly... we haven't tried it at all, and it's blocked with all our crap anyway) but the doorway that leads from the patio into the detached garage.  I looked outside, and sure enough I must've left the door unlocked and D was opening the door, going inside the garage, then closing the door, then opening again, stepping back outside, and closing the door. Repeat, over and over and over.

I step outside to check on him, and he smiles at me, steps back inside the garage, and closes the door... and then I hear him kind jiggle the door handle.  "Huh," I thought. I went to turn the doorknob... and he had locked it. The handle has one of those little knobs in the middle that you can turn to lock the door from the inside (who invented those, anyway???).  I wondered if he had done it on purpose, or by mistake.  But then I heard him jiggle the knob again, and open the door, and he started laughing... that mischievous laugh like he knew he'd just done something really cool.  And then he closed, locked, unlocked, and opened the door again, and then said, "Mommy can't open the door!"

And see, the thing is, our front door also has one of those little locks on the doorknob.  He's been able to open the door for a while, but I've been wondering when he'd figure out the lock. BTW there's also a deadbolt that he can't reach--yet--so I can still keep the door locked and him inside, but now I'm worried about him locking the door on me when I go out to, say, check the mail.

So I'm thinking we'll need to find a good secret outdoor hiding place for an extra key.  That or make sure to always carry a house key in my pocket if I try to step outside.

Surprise Toddler Skill #2: A few months ago when D started waking up waaay too early to be decent, we settled on the following routine-- at night, after he went to sleep, we'd put a sippy cup of water and a tupperware container with some snacks in his room, along with some special toys. Then we closed the childproof gate at his doorway. When he woke up, he could turn on his own light, eat a snack, and play, until a semi-reasonable hour (6-6:30am) when we'd get up and open the gate to let him out. This has been working pretty well most of the time.

Imagine our surprise when D runs into our room this morning, with a cheerful "Hello!"  Before either of us had gotten up.  As in, isn't the gate supposed to be locked?  There's a possibility Zach might've left the gate open last night... but we're pretty sure it was closed.  Which would mean D opened the childproof gate by himself.

Which would be, um, very not-good.

Methinks this kid is too friggin smart for our own good...