Sunday, October 01, 2006

Extreme Chocolate

We've always known that Frank is particularly fond of chocolate. The last 24 hours have played this out in a rather funny way. Yesterday afternoon he was beyond-the-beyond in the tired department. But all that was on his sleep-deprived mind was chocolate. He was trying to force Kate out of my bedroom rather loudly and with much crying. Kate finally conceded and I heard him lock the door. I quickly unlocked it and stuck my foot in the door to prevent him from locking it again. Why would Frank suddenly want to lock everyone out of the bedroom? This was a little unusual.

A lightbulb went on in my head. I plucked the package of chocolates off the top of the dresser and returned to the hallway. Frank stormed out of the room screaming for the chocolates. He's an excellent climber and must have figured that if he locked the door he'd have enough time to get to that chocolate. (He was asleep within half an hour).

He didn't go to sleep until late (after that big nap), but still woke up in the middle of the night, crying and begging for ten or fifteen minutes for chocolate, (he's hit that "pleeeeeeeeease!!!" stage - even when he's half-asleep) finally giving up and going back to sleep.

3 comments:

arlawless said...

What a great story. I love it! :-)

It takes a lot of thought to figure out that locking the door would buy enough time to climb up on a dresser and score the chocolate... what a clever kid!

We just learned that Em can lock herself in the bathroom (or any other room, for that matter). Fortunately, I was in the bathroom with her when I discovered this. I told Stephen that I would have a really hard time getting into the bathroom if she were to lock herself in, because the lock on the knob is a pretty tough one to pick. (We learned this the hard way, when Tommy locked himself in there on New Year's Eve a few years ago. All the Lawless men were in the hallway, trying to free a crying Tommy from our bathroom!) Stephen ended up switching the knob out with a simple one (one that can be unlocked with a coin), because it was a pretty scary thought, thinking of Em in there all by herself with access to rubbing alcohol and all those other "goodies" under the sink! (Yikes!)

love2learnmom said...

Yes, Frank is very clever - sometimes scarily so. He often reminds me bit of Ria at that age - very observant, very active, a lot of pushing, pulling and hitting siblings (definitely the occasional bite), but always so very charming.

One day when we were in our old house (you remember the 1890s house with all the old-fashioned doorknobs?), John was vacuuming the floor and Gus absolutely hated the noise (he was about 4 at the time). He went into our bedroom and closed and locked the door and fell asleep. 2 year old Terri was asleep in there too and we had no way to unlock the door. I was about ready to call the fire department, but John managed to work his way in through the window with a ladder (it was a tough place to get at).

This...
>All the Lawless men were in the hallway, trying to free a crying Tommy from our bathroom!<
conjures up SUCH a picture in my head - a bunch of frantic engineers all trying to pick a lock. Glad to know they're taking such good care of our godson. :)

Dr. Thursday said...

Great (if terrifying) stories - but for me, this conjures up that famous prophecy from Isaiah:

I will put the key of the House of David on his shoulder... what he locks, no one will open...

(Remember the ancient keys look like our hockey sticks!)