The Price household’s sleeping quality had decreased greatly once again recently, not because of the children’s sickness, not because of our (Steven and I) sickness, not because of some dodgy habit of mine (stay up till wee hours in the morning).
It’s because of the sound of unscrewing doorknob.
Okay, let me explain.
Horatio is very found of his little baby sister Ambrosia. It almost was love from the first sight. He adores his wee little sister, and would love to spend every waking moment with her. As the time goes, she began to response his affectionate attention with pure happiness. Whenever she saw him, her face would immediately lighten up, beaming, give her beloved brother her cute melon grin (sometimes…alright, almost all the time, she will add a few shriek of excitement free of charge).
Very, very cute to watch, let me assure you.
Of course with this kind of lovely encouragement, it is almost impossible to tear him away from Ambrosia. He only reluctantly parts with her when going to Preschool, letting her goes to one of her naps (he knows well enough if she doesn’t, her cry will be very scary), or his own bedtime. But as soon as there is a slight sound movement from her room at wee hours in the morning (5.30 am, sometimes 4, or 3 am), he will take it as an ok signal; off he went to his sister’s room next door, completely forgot his mummy and daddy are still sound asleep or his sister might just sleep talking. The result is always a very tired baby by 9 in the morning, and two ‘extra’ sleep deprived parents (all parents are sleep deprived).
Rally had to do something about this, do we?
In our house, all doorknob are screw-on’s. It means if you want to take it off, you can just unscrew it. Very convenient and less hassle. We had taken off Horatio’s doorknob in his bedroom for ‘time out ‘ purposes. So I thought this time, I will take off Ambrosia’s from outside. No doorknob, no entry. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeasy.
The first day, it worked. Horatio found the doorknob was gone, very nosily came to our room to inform us. He knew perfectly well he shouldn’t be in there at such a hour in the morning, so not much drama when we told him why we took the doorknob off.
Second day, when he once again stood in front of the doorknob-less door, the little 4 year old came up with a plan.
He went to the other doors of the house, tried all the knobs, picked one that’s loosen enough for his little hand to unscrew, took it off, put it on the door that separate him and his little wee sister, and open the door to reunite with his beloved sister. All these time we thought that was Ambrosia who was scratching the wall (she does do that, to be fair)!
I was furious, Steven was grinning from ear to ear. His little son had just demonstrated his first problem solving skills. He may not have this PDD-NOS thingy (something related to Austism. I believed it was misdiagnosis, Steven insisted his son really has one) after all.
Yeah, right. Now how am I going to stop our little son? I don’t’ want to drew a hole on the door to put the lock on, you know.
On that particular night, before I went to bed, I once again unscrew the doorknob, under the hope perhaps he was just lucky, perhaps tomorrow he would forget about how to do this again.
Tough luck. My wish was not granted the next day. Horatio took another different doorknob off.
Tried again the next day, ditto.
The next day, ditto.
Now as soon as we hear the metal scratching noise, one of us had to get up, and stop our little son doing whatever he was doing and usher him back to his bed. That is, my dear readers, a few hours of good sleep gone.
But I am not giving up; still tirelessly unscrew the doorknob every night. Now Steven started to wonder what’s the point for me to do so.
“It’s a mother’s principle.” I replied through gritted teeth: “besides, I really need a good sleep. Ambrosia wakes up early, means I had to feed her early. Sorry, I already have very little sleep left. I· N·E·E·D· M·Y· S·L·E·E·P!”
Steven just laughs.
Keep laughing, you heartless man.
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