...and they're off!

Lately, by boys have been escaping from their pen. Not much we can do about that, but hope that they don't get themselves hurt one day. Today, I was downstairs (they are upstairs in their pen) making them pancakes. They were being soooo quiet! I figured they must have found something to focus on (as they sometimes get quiet then too). I heard some cute little babbles as they often talk to each other these days. I was finally ready to serve them their pancakes. This time took longer since the grill for some reason took forever to heat up. I come upstairs and they are sitting together munching away at the cookies I had brought up for them to snack on one day and never brought them down. They got out of the pen and reached for their cookies and had a morning snack of their own! What I didn't notice was they didn't just go to their snacks. They took the cables and computer equipment off of their Daddy's computer case, knocked the fire engine book end off the book shelves, thank goodness they didn't get into the books! Some of those were good, hard to find books! They had apparently eaten some snacks and then went wandering to Jason's computer and then went back to the snacks by the time I came back upstairs. Apparently, they also got into their daddy's computer. There was a game on the screen. I doubt they played anything, but how on earth did they open that up? It's not a common game that Jason plays!! The monitor was asleep so they must have gotten out very soon after I went downstairs. They normally go to the stair's gate and shake that, making noise. There was nothing to be heard out of the ordinary to think they got out of their pen this time! :headbang:

I wasn't upset. It was my fault. I now know I have to bring them downstairs with me and put them in their high chairs. They get so frustrated waiting for meals in their chairs and have a much better time playing up here before I get them for breakfast time. But, now I can't trust they'll stay put and not get in to things. If it was easy to do, I'd bring them in to the kitchen with me when I cook so they can watch, but it's just not that easy with where their chairs need be when I feed them.

 

Yes - already learning that silence is not a good thing at all! We have the foam tiles in the playroom and they love to pull them apart - which drives me crazy - so typically if they are too quiet that is what they are doing.

 

Any way you can baby proof everything around and maybe use high gates? You're not saying how they are escaping, but at that age most gates should work fine. Watch the bookshelves too and make sure they are attached to the wall.

 

Silence is most definitely ALWAYS a sign they are doing something they aren't supposed to!! :faint: Is there a way you can secure an area that they can't get out of, maybe with permanent gates?? Good Luck!

 

These gates are the playyard XL. They just pull them down cause they do bend at the seems. They can't exactly climb over them, but they do know how to manipulate them around now so they can climb over them after bringing down one of the corners. We know now how fast we will have to make sure the office (the only room they can cause trouble in at this point) is better baby proofed. The books will have to be moved. Not sure how to secure the bookshelves since they are kiddy(sp?) cornered and not against a wall. The bookshelves in Cameron's room is similar, but they are against the wall. We just removed the lower shelves. They love to climb in there and hide from each other. We do need to secure that book shelf too though. We need to get a permanent gate at the stairs. The one we have now is a pressure gate with a door that doesn't have the most secure lock on it. It does ok, but with two growing boys that are gaining their strength every day, they will knock that gate down soon enough. Right now, I'm more concerned with them opening up the door on the gate and falling down the stairs. They have the ability to walk down, but the gate isn't the most secure gate. The door only opens inward at least, so it's not like they can open it up towards the stairs and fall in because of the door.

 

Yeah we used the superyard for a while too but they eventually figured out how to get out of it, so we baby proofed and used gates. It often involved putting a lot of things out of reach or in storage though.

 

Quite is usually much worse than too much noise. Could you move the play yard downstairs in the kitchen when you are cooking? That way they are there, but don't have to wait in their high chairs.

 

I rarely make breakfast for the same reasons you mentioned. If I do and I'm not up before them, I still put them in their chairs and give them some cereal to snack on while they wait.

They pretty much have free reign of the house, and any room I don't want them in stays closed.

 

Same here. Anything that I don't want them getting into I've had to move or put out of their reach. I have learned that quiet is not a good thing.

 

Those play yards are very heavy. It's the superyard actually. IT's like a line of gates that are connected and it's two sets of them put together since they need a lot of room. I'm not talking about their pack 'n plays. That too is a lot of work for me just so they have a place to sty. They also hate being closed in....anywhere. They'd fuss just as badly if not worse than if they were in their high chairs. I just have the superyard up blocking them from the desks in the office. They have free reign of their rooms and the hallway upstairs along with most of the office. Otherwise, they'd have to go down the stairs to get to more space. The first floor is not baby proofed. We just moved here and are going through some construction in a few weeks so we put off baby proofing the first floor until after the construction. This happened last time. Kiefer just learned to walk when we were crammed in a small hotel room with our two dogs. He decided getting into the little hotel kitchen cabinets was the best thing in life. AND he learned how to open doorknobs. Not the best timing as usual.