Houdini

Brayden has become a little Houdini & been escaping from him room.  Every since we took the binky away he has been a little harder to get to sleep so I have been showering him with kisses & leaving him to cry for a second/minute in his room.  Then one night I was in our bedroom putting away laundry & turned around & B was standing there smiling at me.  He had figured out how to get the door handle thingy off the door (very quietly I might add) & scared the crap out of me.  I tried to figure out what to do for the night & finally just locked his door & unlocked it when he finally fell asleep.

The next day Lance put this up.  B actually doesn't mind it being there HOWEVER it has effected his sleep; meaning he is getting up really early (between 4-5:30) going to the door to open it & crying at the gate for me to get him.

Even with the gate up I am locking his door for him to actually lay down & go to sleep.  If I don't he goes straight to it, opens it & cries..........what do I do??  Do I just let him cry with the door open so he knows that he has to go to sleep?  I have been hoping that he will stop crying so that I can just leave the door open since the gate is there but that really hasn't been working out well for me.  I can't really let him scream because Colton's room is right across the hallway & I don't want 2 kids awake & screaming.........I'll just keep doing what I am doing I guess & just hope & pray that he understands that he is in there for the night (& nap too) & then when he stops the crying & then I open the door permanently.  

I feel like I get one thing figured out & 5 other things pop up that need to be figured out...........being a parent is a hard job & some days I feel completely up to the challenge but other days I feel like a complete failure & like I am going to lose my mind!!