Kitchen Gate Gaiden

Just a quick note regarding the kitchen gate as well. We have our laundry room opposite to the kitchen and it is closed off by a wooden slate bi-fold door that the boys have always been interested in. When we set up the second gate and opened the long hallway to our bedroom, Alex was certain that the boys wouldn't figure out how the door worked. I, being a baby mind-reader (at least for the baby exploration desires since I had the same thing as a kid), knew that the boys wouldn't stop until they figured out how to get it open.

When I brought the first baby out from his nap, I let him run around on the floor, exploring all the changes we made to the living room. This baby was Eli, and immediately upon getting to the floor and noticing the toy box was gone, he walked through the newly minted hallway and made a B line over to the bi-fold doors. Being the ever curious little sneak he is, he started to play with the wooden slats of the door and noticed they made a sound very pleasing, at least I thought pleasing as he giggled and repeated the motion over and over again until his brother joined him. They took a short jaunt down the hallway and explored the new space, running around in circles down the hallway. It was very cute, but they returned to that bi-fold door, determined to open 'er up. Alex and I were sitting on the couch passively watching them and watching the news when suddenly they started to bang on the door. What do you know- one side of the bi-fold slightly caved in. Huh, I thought. I didn't see that coming, as I honestly thought they'd be able to reach the knob and yank at it (they could end up reaching it, but not have the leverage to yank at it). Alas, this caving of the door created a slight crack in the joint between them, and Eli and Jude started to tug at the opposite door until it opened up. Alex saw this and jumped up, but by the time she got the boys, they already had made it into the laundry room and were on the carpet, trying to pull at the brooms. "No, no!" Alex remarked, and I slowly got up with a smug look on my face: I knew they'd figure it out. I didn't expect it to be within 30 minutes, I'll admit, but the day wasn't done until the boys figured out some sort of trouble to play on our best laid plans. I can't wait to see what sort of engineers we have.