The Wall Comes Down

The last major child proofing barrier in our house has been the gate at the top of the stairs. We've had it there for about 3 years now, and I think that there are still only a handful of people who know how to open it. The kids never figured out how to open it, but have learned how to go over it (although they only did that 2-3 times). Lately we have only been using it occasionally, generally when the adult in the house needs to do something that takes their attention away from the kids temporarily and we need to know where they are (like taking a shower).

But this week the tide has turned and we have truly shifted away from "baby mode". We took the gate down. Actually it came down because we were moving the couch up from the basement (part of our organization homework), but for now we have decided to leave it down since the Dandelion handles himself just fine on the stairs these days.

So far so good. We actually used the basement a lot this week, due to the sweltering heat on the main floor of the house. The kids were able to go up and down whenever they needed to and I didn't have to check to see if the gate was open if they wanted to go up and down.

Now the only thing we need to work on is not going out the front door with out a grown up, as both kids have shown the ability to unlock the deadbolt on the front door. This is extra aggravating because back in the winter the lock was so sticky it took 5-10 minutes of wiggling to let in a guest. Is it possible to un-WD40 something?