For the past couple of months we have had to keep our doors locked.  Not to keep the bad guys out, but to keep the little guy in. 

Ace, you see,  is a master escape artist.  It never happens when Momma or I are in the room.  He is sneaky.  We could be in the kitchen, or in the basement…anywhere but in sight of the front door…and Ace will make his move.  He reaches up, pulls down on the door handle, and out the door he goes.

Now, he doesn’t get very far.  First of all, because our door squeaks when it is opened.  As soon as one of us hear the squeaky door we know something is up and bee-line it for the door.  He would have to be fast to get away, and he is, but he has a few obstacles in his way.

The step out of our front door is a wee bit longer than his legs.  He can make it out, but it takes a little bit…or else he falls after a failed attempt.

The second obstacle is the step from the stoop to the sidewalk.  This is even higher than the first obstacle.  I kind of think of these steps as a razor-wire fence that keeps in the prisoners.  However, Ace has no fear and will stop at nothing to scale our prison fences.

Luckily we have not had the little guy get too far yet because we do usually keep the door locked.  Every time we come inside the dead bolt gets thrown.  Ace is very observant and I’m sure he has seen this done thousands of times.

On Christmas Eve, I was at work, and Momma was home with Ace.  She went outside to get something out of her truck and when she went to go back into the house the deadbolt was locked, and standing just behind the smoky glass was Ace…with a shit eating grin I might add.  Momma said he laughed histarically as she fumbled trying to get into the door.   She tried to coax Ace into unlocking the door, but to no avail.

Of course Momma’s keys were inside…and we do not have a spare hidden away outside somewhere for emergencies like this.  Our spare key is at Grandma S’s house.  But, Momma’s cell phone was inside too.

So she went over to the neighbors to call Grandma S.  She was at work.  All of Ace’s uncles were not home either, so she had no spare.

Momma checked all of the down stairs windows, but they were locked.  We used to keep one unlocked for emergencies like this, but we recently had someone break in the house through a window…so they are all locked now. 

By now Ace is screaming his head off because he is stuck inside and Momma is stuck outside.  So, Momma starts looking for other ways to get inside and she notices the upstairs windows.

I have an extension ladder out back and so she grabs it, extends it, and luckily one of the upstairs windows were unlocked.  She dives in the window, and falls to the floor (creating some pretty nice size bruises on her legs, I might add), and runs downstairs to rescue her little man from his own demise.

So, you would think that we have learned a lesson and put a spare key outside?  Nope.  I had a few spares made and they are sitting on the dining room table…cause we usually lock ourselves in the dining room, right?