We Have Locks...

But obviously need something more!!!

Liam has gotten out, BY HIMSELF several times in the past week! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He got out a couple of months ago, and actually went around the corner and a neighbor had seen him escape, (I had the door locked, and chained), and she went after him and headed him back home!

Since then we haven't had too much trouble, until recently. The kids go in and out the door so many times a day, and I try to keep the door locked and chained, but he has figured out how to get out anyway... Last week on Saturday, some of us had gone to help with the day of Service, and Bill was helping a sister move, and that afternoon, when it was just the three younger kids and myself, the girls were playing with the neighbors out front. Liam wanted to go out too, but they didn't want to watch him...
Eventually I sent him into the backyard to play... before too long I heard the neighbors saying Hi to Liam, etc. I went out back and realized he was IN the neighbors yard! I was sort of going crazy trying to figure out how he'd gotten OVER the fence, then realized he'd gone out the gate and the neighbor boy had gotten him and taken him to play in the other neighbors (right next door, through the fence) backyard, where the girls were all playing slip and slide and water fights...

I brought him back in, and reprimanded him, but tried to be nice, and so I took my laptop out in the backyard so I could continue working on what I was doing, as well as keep him company while he played. He still tried to escape the backyard through the gate, but... I tried to tie it closed. After a little bit, he was playing happily, then he went in the house. By the time I got up from where I was at, and tried to get in, the little stinker had locked the back screen door, and I was locked out... and he was was dragging a chair toward the front door so that he could reach to unlock the chain, and make his escape! I called out to him through the screen, and he stopped dragging the chair, and just stood there and grinned at his genius!

Oh MY Goodness!!!!!

Well, I got him to unlock the screen door and let me in, but we have had multiple other exiting moments lately!

One day this past week he was wearing underwear (we're trying... and he's getting better and better at going in the potty... yay!), and we were in the backyard, but he wet his pants. I took them off of him, and went inside to put them in the laundry, and get new pants for him, and before I could get back outside, he had come in the front door! Shirt, shoes and socks, and nothing else! He had gotten out the gate and gone to see Marissa across the street playing with friends, she got him and brought him home to get on some underwear at least...