Spring is in the air....S1 is on the run!

Okay, so S1 escaped from school a couple of weeks ago. This last week I have been totally stressed out because in five days he got out three times from our house! The first time the neighbor's kids saw him and their mom grabbed him and brought him home. He'd only made it down to our next door neighbor's driveway. I'm still not sure exactly how he got out. I was paying bills and may have left the front door unlocked when I let S2 out to go to his friends house. Or S1 could have undone all the locks because after wards I saw a little chair next to the door which he could have used to reach the top lock. Or he could have used one of the two ways that to me were unknown at the time! Because the next day I actually had to call the police.

I had let S1 outside to jump on the trampoline. I realized that it had been a while since I'd heard him squealing as he jumped. So I went to check on him and could find him nowhere in the yard. I then searched the garage and house and still could not locate him. The gates were closed and the doors were all secured. I started freaking out. There was no way he could escape. Maybe someone had taken him. So I called the police. They were at the house in no time flat. They first had to check everywhere for him where I had already looked - under the trampoline, under the porch, in the deep freeze and garage fridge (which were plugged in and working), in the dryer and washing machine, under all the beds, in the bathtub, etc. When it was clear he was gone, the police started looking for him. They even called up to the high school (where S1 loves to wander to) and had people at the wrestling competition look around for him. Shortly thereafter the police were called about a unaccompanied child at the rec center. Apparently S1 had wandered up to the high school, been seen running through the construction on the football field and entered the rec center through a side door meant for the high school students to use. He'd gone upstairs and was enjoying himself making noise and playing on the floor. When a patron noticed him she told the people at the front desk. They went up to approach him and quickly ascertained that all was not right. So they called the police.

The rec center child matched S1's description so the police had me wait at home while they went to pick up S1. Sure enough it was S1 and he wouldn't get out of the cruiser! The officer said he'd had a bit of trouble getting S1 out of the rec center (of course, he was having fun!) but no trouble getting him into the cruiser. Of course not, S1 loves to go for a ride and in a car with lights makes it all the better. I had to finally pry him out. While brainstorming, the only way we could figure that S1 got out was that maybe one of the climbing toys was too close to the fence. Conceivably, but I thought it doubtful, he could have climbed onto the top, leaned over to the fence, swung his leg over and then the other and dropped the six plus feet to the ground on the other side. I doubted it but it seemed to be the only explanation, so we moved the climbing toy away from the fence.

Two days later I get a call from my backyard neighbor telling me that S1 was over at their house and he was covered in mud. They pulled up in their car and when they got out and were headed into the house, S1 came around the corner from their side yard and said, "Hi!" to get their attention and then walked into their home. Luckily this is my good friend Stacy so it wasn't too bad. S1 had been going in and out of the house to play in the backyard and I'd just heard him a couple minutes earlier. I went into the backyard to see if I could tell how he got out. As I walked along the fence checking the gate, I noticed there were some places where the leaves had been pushed aside and there was just bare ground. S1 had "dug" and scooted under the fence just like a dog! Our yard is a bit higher than the neighbors. Over the past four years the dirt has eroded down apparently. S1 saw the light under the fence and saw a way out. So he cleared the leaves and surface dirt away and wriggled under the fence!

S1 spent the next two days in the house while I and my neighbor's husband drilled boards onto the bottom of the fence from their side and I filled in the gaps with rocks and dirt from our side. When I let S1 back out in the yard he immediately ran to the fence and began to look for light coming under the fence and moving leaves to see if he could find an escape route. Meanwhile I was in the boys room watching him from the window. As he continued to push on the gate to see if it would open and testing the light spots coming through the bottom of the fence, I spoke to him from the window. I said things like, "Ha ha S1. Mommy is smarter than you. Mommy figured it out S1. You can't escape now!" He took one look over his shoulder to where he could hear my voice and since he couldn't see me, took off like a bat out of hell the opposite direction. I thought, that can't be good. So I slipped on my shoes and ran out to the backyard. Along the south side of our house it is fenced, but only by a four foot high piece of chain link that's attached to the house and southern fence by a couple of bolts. It's always been enough to keep him in, until this spring that is! As I stepped out of the house I saw him pulling the fence down towards himself and as I ran towards him he laid down on the fence and I was able to grab him right before he flipped himself over the fence to freedom.

As I marched him into the house I said, "Well, S1 you sure clever finding a new way out, way to show mom she doesn't know everything and that you could still escape. But it wasn't very smart to show me how! Now you have to stay inside." S1 spent the next week inside while I spent the next few days digging post holes, setting posts and hanging chain link - six feet tall. When it was all ready I let S1 into the backyard. He immediately ran over to the new fence to see if he could get out. First he tried to pull it over like he had the old fence. No such luck. Then S1 tried to climb it. He could only get one foot off the ground and then was stuck so he had to get back down. Last, he sat on the ground and started pushing gravel away from the bottom of the fence to see if he could go under it. Again he failed. Now our house is Ft. Knox and S1 has not escaped since then!