Locked Out!

Nicholas has a strange love/hate relationship with doors. At night, when he is going to bed,he freaks out and has a melt down if you close his bedroom door, actually even if he is in his room for a time out he freaks out if you close his door. On the opposite end, he has an obsession with closing doors. When we go to church, he has to close all of the classroom doors he walks past. Lately we have had a bit of bad luck when it comes to his door closing obsession. You see our apartment door automatically locks when you close it. The other day I was about to take the boys out on a walk, so I strapped both of them into the double stroller, put the keys in the stroller, and then opened the door and stepped outside to hold open the screen door while I pushed the stroller out. As soon as I stepped outside, nicholas kicked the door shut with his foot, locking me outside, and the two of them inside, and sice they were strapped in the stroller, I couldn't just have nicholas open the door. I had to go to my friend's house to call the appartment office, to have someone come open the door. The whole time I waited I could hear them inside screaming at me. I'm just glad it was duuing office hours so I didn't have to pay the after hours lock-out fee of $25. The next morning When the boys woke up they played in thier room for a while, which was nice- I could actually sleep in for a bit. Then they started screaming and wanted out. Sam told them to come out then, and Nicholas said that he couldn't because the door was stuck. He had locked it from the inside. Sam kept trying to tell him to push the button on the door and then open it, but Nicholas kept on saying it was stuck. Finally sam picked the lock, and as it turned out Nicholas had not only locked the door, but he had also pushed Christian's crib in front of it and then climbed into it. He can climb into it, but for some reason he still hasn't figured out how to climb out of it yet. So indeed they were really stuck. Then yesterday morning I walked out onto out patio to grab someting really quick and again Nicholas closed the door and locked me out. The Back door is really hard to open, so when I told nicholas to open it, of course he said he couldn't because it was stuck. Luckily this time after a little coaxing he got it open. I hope he outgrows this phase soon!