For a long time we've had rubber-bands on all the lower cupboards that have two door knobs close together. This used to keep him out, but now he just takes the rubber bands off and plays with them and then raids the cupboards. When we put the rubber bands up high on our tall pantry cupboards we lock great-grandma out of her food cupboard which isn't good.
I taped the computer desk drawer shut so Lincoln can't get Bentley's pencils. That worked for a while, but after he watched Bentley pull the tape back to get into the drawer, he started pulling the tape off, too. We've taken most everything out of the kitchen desk drawers. We had put some stuff (like Viva's hairbrush and the trio's chap sticks) in a bin with a lid that he couldn't open and then we put the bin in the drawer. Then he figured out how to open the bin. Kara found a new bin with a different lid. We'll see how long that keeps him out.
I taped the fireplace doors shut so he can't pinch his fingers when opening and shutting them. We have baby gates that keep him from going upstairs or downstairs on his own. I've taped a key ring with the library door key on it to the library door. We can keep the door locked, but great-grandma can easily access the key to unlock it to get in to exercise and use her computer.
The cat's food is in the mudroom, so if we keep the door shut (Lincoln can't open that kind of door knob yet), the cat drives us crazy meowing to get in and out. If we leave the door open for the cat, Lincoln has access to all the shoes and cupboards in the mudroom. It comes down to this: do we let the cat or the toddler drive us crazy? Kara's threatened felinicide, so Lincoln wins that battle.
We keep the upstairs bathroom door open so the cat can get to his litter box, but this also gives Lincoln access to the toothbrushes and toothpaste. He really likes to brush his teeth. There's a stool in that bathroom to make it easier for the trio to brush their teeth on their own. It makes it possible for Lincoln to turn the faucet on. He LOVES that. When Kara or I go upstairs to put in a load of laundry or do some other chore and Lincoln tags along, we have to repeatedly remove him from the bathroom. He's a persistent little guy.
I work hard to limit Lincoln's access to places he should not have access to, but I cannot keep ahead of him. The house is too large and there are too many enticing drawers, cupboards, cubby holes, closets, and rooms. We do our best, but it's not good enough. In the morning when we are trying to do school with the older children, clean up from breakfast, feed Evan, and get any needed household chores done Lincoln is a mini tornado rushing around the main floor leaving chaos in his wake:
*** He'll toss the entire plastic ware drawer on the floor and leave it there or carry the plastic ware to other rooms.
*** He pulls out Jake and Viva's math bin. Many fun, forbidden items (pencils, money, crayons) are in the bin.
*** He throws items in the garbage that do not belong there.
*** He grabs the glass Pyrex dishes off their shelf.
*** He carries around the gallon size glass bottles filled with cereal or snack food. (We've switched a lot of the foods to plastic containers, but not all of them.)
*** He yanks the carbon monoxide detector out of the wall socket and plays with the button on it making it beep.
*** He pulls open the utensil drawer and removes utensils. He can't see into the drawer, but his hands can reach into it.
*** He takes items from my bathroom vanity drawers and carries them down the hall leaving them in the laundry room, his parents' room, and the hallway.
*** He opens the entryway bench and takes out the winter hats stored there. He wears some of them and redistributes the rest throughout the main floor.
*** He turns on and off, on and off, on and off the lights to the living room, driveway and front porch.
It's not possible to keep close track of a toddler when there are four other children asking for attention and help. Evan is very little and needs a lot of attention and even though there are three adults at home during the day, we still run short of hands to hold him. If we can't give an infant enough attention, how can we expect to keep an active toddler on our radar at all times?
When we moved into this house four years ago there were three toddlers in the household: Bentley was almost three and the twins were five days short of seventeen months old. Lincoln is seventeen months and two days. I try to think back to those early days when I lived with three toddlers. Surely the trio combined were more work than one toddler?
Life was hectic because we were trying to get unpacked from our big move in, but I don't remember having a hard time keeping the trio out of every cupboard, drawer, and off-limit room. They never pulled my plants off their stands or denuded entire book shelves. Well, maybe they did the latter, but not the former which Lincoln has done.
I think the trio left most of the cupboards and drawers alone and instead played with each other. It's good to have siblings your age! As nice as it is for Lincoln to have older siblings, they don't always want to play with him. Sometimes they are doing schoolwork. Sometimes they are reading. Sometimes they are doing activities not suited to a toddler: Legos, puzzles, crafts, ballet, gymnastics, etc.
We never taped the fireplace doors shut when the trio was young. We didn't have the cat yet, so the mudroom and upstairs bathroom weren't problem areas because we kept their doors shut. We didn't have school supplies everywhere, so we didn't have to fight with them over pencils, markers, scissors, and books. There weren't any Legos out. We didn't do 200 piece puzzles. We didn't have a baby in the house or older school-aged children that needed our help.
Maybe Lincoln is not the problem. Maybe it's our increasingly chaotic lifestyle and his younger and older siblings? If they weren't constantly distracting us, Lincoln wouldn't have the freedom to get into trouble. Whatever the reasons, the truth is that Lincoln IS more work than three toddlers.
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