Mathes is a very sweet and loving little boy, always telling you how
much he loves you and that you’re cute. He is a total monkey and into
everything, barely stopping on his way from one thing to the next, doing
everything at a dead run. His love for vehicles is infinite, and he can
dance like a maniac, but the fact that he seems to have no fear,
a penchant for exploring, and isn’t afraid of strangers is really scary
to me. This last week he has really given my heart a full workout and
scared me to death with his antics. A few weeks ago when Craig was
outside working on his motorbike in the garage, Mathes wanted to be
outside with his Daddy, so I let him go, and made sure Craig knew he was
there. About 30 minutes later Craig came in to wash up for dinner, and I
asked where Mathes was. He replied that Mathes had come back inside the
house with Dylan, and I assured him he had not. Panicked, Craig and I
split up and began to frantically search, when Craig found him down the
block at a neighbors, playing in her fenced yard. Apparently he had gone
with Dylan back towards the house, but didn’t actually go in, and Dylan
and Craig didn’t see him slip away since he’s so quiet, so he climbed
the neighbors chain link fence to get to her fun toys in her yard and
had been happily playing for who knows how long. This was only the
beginning.
I have a crib tent for Mathes, it’s like a mesh tent that attaches
with velcro straps to the top of your crip and has a zippered opening,
so you can safely corral your little one, and keep them from trying to
climb out of bed and falling or just from getting out and getting into
trouble when you think they’re quietly sleeping. Mathes could already
unzip it from inside his bed, so we had started tying the zipper to the
side where he couldn’t reach, but he’s Houdini, and was easily able to
untie anything, it just depended on how patient he was feeling that day.
So a few mornings after the fence climbing incident I was awakened at
about 7am by Haven running into my room yelling that Mathes was out of
bed and had gone outside and was playing in the street! I threw on my
clothes as fast as I could while I was running to the door, but Mathes
had seen Haven at the door and knew he was in trouble so he had run back
into the house before he got caught. I was so shaken up I was crying. I
had no idea how long he had been outside, and was terrified at the
thought that he could have gotten hurt, or worse. It seemed no matter
what we did he was able to undo, untie, or unlock just about any
obstacle in his way, and it was freaking me out.
That was the last straw for me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to
sleep knowing he had no problem getting out, and going outside to play
in the street. So I finally found a small luggage lock, and by attaching
it to the zipper pull on the crib tent we have finally found the
solution to keeping him safe in his bed (I can undo the velcro straps in
a matter of seconds in case of any emergency, luckily he can’t). We
also have storm doors that lock from the inside or outside with a key,
so we have begun keeping both the front and back storm doors locked all
of the time since Mathes can unlock both dead bolts and open both doors
anytime he wants to make a run for it. I starting to feel a little bit more peaceful at
night knowing he is safe, and can’t sneak outside.
Then on Friday while the kids played downstairs, and I had just
hung up the phone with Marky from wishing him a Happy Birthday and I was
getting ready to start making dinner(Craig was working on the bathroom
again) when I got a knock at the front door. I opened it to see my
neighbor standing there holding my son Mathes, who was supposed to be in
the basement playing with his siblings. He had quietly slipped out the
back door that someone had left unlocked, and run down the block to her
house again, tried to climb the chain link fence again,
and this time got caught on it, and was stuck for we don’t know how
long. Thankfully my neighbor has kids of her own, and said she
understood, but I was absolutely undone. Neither Craig nor I had any
idea Mathes had gotten out, or for how long since he is so quiet when he
wants to be. I swear he came with a stealth mode.
Shorlty after that fiasco Chris showed up with Grammy Lesa to pick
up the two older kids for the weekend, and I was outside with all of
the kids (Craig was still working on the bathroom walls) while we waited
for Dylan to finish getting some Scout info he needed before he
left. Mathes and Haven had climbed into the Suburban while we were
chatting (Mathes LOVES cars), and the two front doors were open while
they were bouncing on the seats inside, having what I thought was
harmless fun. I had just handed the baby to Lesa when all of a sudden
Chris says “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!” and starts to run towards the car. I
turned around just in time to see the Suburban rolling backwards down
the driveway, with Haven happily bouncing in the drivers seat ”
steering” and Mathes in the passenger seat looking mildly
interested that they were now moving. Chris ran and jumped into the
drivers side through the open door, and shoved his hand onto the brake
until he could get it back into “park”, thus saving my kids from harm,
and my neighbors house from severe damage. We have no idea how the kids
muscled it out of “park” because it’s nearly impossible on that car to
do it without the keys, but somehow the two of them did, and I am so
thankful for Chris and his quick actions.
So I am a total nazi now about locking the doors of the house and
the cars, and so far these last few days have been better, and he hasn’t
been able to run out without us knowing, and there have been no
incidents of underage driving either. Although we had already been
keeping the cars locked since we knew with his love of vehicles he would
have no problem climbing into either car, and if we were unaware of his
escape it would be terrible during the heat of the summer for him to be
in the car, unnattended and and without us knowing. For those of you
that think I’m a terrible mother, I challenge you to come and visit with
me and my little monkey boy for even 1 hour, and you will see, he’s all
boy, and we’re really doing everything we can to keep him safe.
(Although if I was really worried about what other people think about my
parenting skills I wouldn’t have posted this.) And for those of you
that have a boy or boys just like this, you are not alone, I understand your frustration!
*(Please note that I have talked to a lot of women who have all said
that they went through the same things with their own sons, some young
moms in the middle of it and just as frustrated as I am, and some moms
that are a little older and have managed to get their little
monkey boy to adulthood with no lasting scars, and my Mom was one of
them with my three brothers, so I feel there’s hope for me yet.)
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