Today during naptime I was sitting at the table working on a few things and enjoying the peace and quiet in the house. The sun was shining, all the daycare children were sleeping and one of my favorite CDs was playing quietly in the background. I could hear Z-Man bumping and thumping around in his room above me, but I wasn’t concerned – he usually plays for a while before getting tired and crawling into bed to sleep.
Suddenly I felt a presence next to me. I turned my head and there was Z-Man! “I awake, I not want to nap” he announced, grinning. I was dumbfounded! How did he get out of his room? We’d had a problem with him climbing up the baby gate to get out months ago, so we bought a solid gate with no footholds for him. Then I remembered that he’d just discovered over the weekend that if he pushed a chair up to the gate he could climb over. But there was no chair in his room, just the 2 beds, 2 dressers and toys.
I took him back to his room amid protests of ” I not want to nap! I not tired! I stay downstairs!” When I reached his room I discovered what a clever boy he is – he dumped the dirty clothes out of the hamper, Jo-Bear’s swords out of the plastic trash can that they live in, and the Imaginext out of the large bin where they live. Then he turned them each upside-down to make steps leading to the gate! I was equally impressed and horrified, is this the end of my quiet nap times? How would I get the 3 children who nap downstairs to sleep if Z-Man is bopping around?!
I put him back into bed (Jo-Bear’s bed – Z-Man only sleeps in his bed at night), raised the gate a couple of inches and took the hamper and garbage can out of his room. With a stern “Stay in your room!” and a kiss I went back downstairs, hoping for the best.
It’s now quiet upstairs. The question is… did he fall alseep or is he into more mischief???
Update: He did fall asleep, thank heavens! And he’s only done it one other time – that time I caught him because I heard him running around upstairs. I told him he had to stay in his room so the other children could sleep. So far so good…
