Friday, March 20, 2009

Prison Break

I have a Mas Selamat living in my house. He doesn't walk with a limp, isn't dark-skinned and didn't plan to blow up our airport, but he did manage quite an escape from his padded cell and didn't even need to ask to go to the bathroom to do that. He also didn't climb out the window but did run directly into the authorities, got caught and put back in prison.

Who am I talking about?
My son. Evan. The escape artist.

Evan in recent weeks has learnt to climb over things. He's climbed before but never with much of a purpose. Often just to see if he could. But because they've been sick and have had adult pillows in their cot so that they could sleep elevated, he's discovered how to use the pillow to climb out of his cot onto the bed that we usually pass out in when we get them to bed.

With that in mind, two mornings ago when he was awake at an unearthly hour and I needed to sleep for another half hour, I moved his cot into the middle of the room so that he had nothing to leverage on. But 5 minutes later, I heard, in my half conscious stupor, through the baby monitor "Mummy Mummy Mummy!" and kicked Packrat out of bed to go investigate while I tried to get some Zs. Only that once he opened the door, I heard pitter patter feet running towards our bedroom yelling "duck duck, duck duck". (Duck duck is his Linus blanket). Packrat re-enters the room and asks if I had let him out earlier.

Very quickly, we put 2 and 2 together and made 5, realising that the boy had climbed out of his cot, managed to flip himself over and land on his feet, only to realise that his beloved Duck Duck was still trapped behind bars. Unable to get to it himself, he decided to seek help, first by yelling out of me and then prying the door open to get to me. Thankfully for him, he bumped into Papa outside. All the while, with Baby J squalling in her cot because she couldn't figure why her brother was free and she was still stuck!

The both of us had quite a shock because of all the things imaginable that could have happened. He could have fallen on his head. He could have fallen down the stairs had he decided to venture down. He could have gone into the bathroom and fallen into the toilet. Who knows. We got together after that and prayed and thank God from the bottom of our hearts that He had sent angels to watch Evan while the boy was up to his antics.

Anyway, we decided there and then that this was stress we could live without. So we freed him from his little cot. We took down the rail and converted it into a day bed with a mattress on the floor in case he rolled over. And now, we actually shut the door rather than just close it so that his little fingers can't pry it open. When he figures the door knob, that's a different story altogether.

They're happy now, to be able to slip on and off their little beds but it makes getting them to sleep a little bit trickier. But they have, as of 3 days ago, graduated to day beds and hopefully our little Mas Selamat doesn't try any other break out antics because I don't think my heart could handle that.




















Happier days in the cot.



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Contemplating pulling a Mas Selamat.

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3 comments:

  1. Oh my! I can imagine the state of your heart when you put things together.

    Hmm. Are boys just more "adventurous" in that sense?

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  2. In a nutshell, I think, yes. They are more 'adventurous'. Evan gets into far more scraps than his sister does.

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  3. oh wow, what an adventure for him and a heart-stopping moment for you guys :) as I have door knobs with handles, my guy figured out how to open doors a month ago and has been happily helping himself since then.

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