JAKE STRIKES AGAIN!!!!!!

Imagine you are in a deep and peaceful sleep. Then, out of nowhere......WHAM!!! Jake strikes again!!

Of I go into the dark hallway looking for him. I KNOW I heard him, I also heard our senile dogs pitter patter of her nails on the hardwood floor. THAT is never a good sign because it means she is NOT in the kitchen. The only way that happens, is Master Jake has struck again.

The strange thing I noticed this time, is that Jake's door to his room was closed and the blanket we put on the floor at his door (the door bottom is high in case a carpet is ever put in) to block the light was in place. Snoop Mom is on the case. I go into the dining room and there is the dog. She is walking in circles (because she is senile and has no real idea where she is going) in an attempt to hide I imagine from that crazy little boy who keeps telling me he just wants to help Sissey escape! Off to bed with her. The problem is, in her little senile mind she is not going back to bed, she is going somehwre, anywhere! Now I am spending 10 minutes putting the dog back into her bed 20 times. Then the real snooping begins. Where is Jake??

After looking in all the usual places like under the dining room table, the living room and behind the couch, I heard a strange noise coming from the laundry room area. Lo and behold, there he was, hiding behind the back bathroom door gigling. UGH!!!! That Boy!!!!

Off I go with Jake in tow back to his bed. All the usual instruction said, "DON'T get out of bed, DON'T go into the kitchen and DON'T TOUCH the dog!" Within minutes, the sound of Jake's bedroom door hits my ears and we are both off and running down the hallway again in the dark of the night.

Now, believe me when I tell you that we are doing ALL the things that all of you have suggested. For example, we used bungee cords to hold the door so he could open it but not open it enough to wiggle through. He almost tossed the dresser the cords were attached to. Toss that idea out.

Next, we put up the old baby gate that LOCKS, in his doorway so when he opened his door at 4 AM, he could see out but could not get out. Well, never one to be held back, Jake just piled a bunch of toy boxes and crawled (at 3:30 AM) over the top of the gate. By the way, this is NOT a short gate. We really thought we had him. I almost had a good night sleep that night thinking he is safe in his room. Silly me! Toss that idea, not safe.

We even tried having Eddie sleep on the couch to send a message to Jake (consistancy ya know) that Mom and Dad aren't going to take it anymore!!! Silly us!! Toss that idea out.

Those are just a couple of the things we have tried. It was suggest that we get a dutch door for his room but we are afraid he will just climb that too. Unless we put barbed wire but then DCFS will haul us off to jail! LOL Just kidding!!!

Finally, we are going to have to go to our last resort. One we both hate but are at a loss to do anything else. We are going to put a chain lock on the outside of the door. He can open and see out but cannot do anything more. The goal is to keep him in his room and safe. He will yell and wake us up, but at least I know he won't get hurt.

There you have it. My day or night in the life with Jake (just this week). Even with all of this he is still the funniest, smartest and strongest little 4 year old there is.

Pray for us, PLEASE!!!