Nice While it Lasted

I'm not talking about the Phoenix summer we've just endured. I'm talking about Olivia's inability to open doors. I knew the end was near, but I wasn't ready. Olivia had been standing on her toes and trying to manipulate the door handle of each door in the house for a couple weeks before she finally opened one. It took only one successful attempt to make her a pro. The upside is that now when she goes into her room or the library and closes the door behind her she doesn't sit on the floor and scream until I let her out. Now she simply opens the door and walks out. The downside is that now when I close a door to keep her out of a room she simply opens the door and walks in. She comes and goes as she wishes. She gets into whatever strikes her fancy. (Lots and lots of things strike her fancy.)




Last week she opened the door to the pantry and let herself in. I found her joyfully splashing in Maxine's water dish. Before Olivia's mastering this new skill, it had always been a race to see which of us could get there first when I'd left the pantry door open. She still runs when she sees it open, but also knows she can just as easily open the door when it's closed and help herself to a bottle of water, a Coke, Maxine's leftovers, and of course, splash in the water. But that's where she's wrong, starting this week. Brigham had the brilliant idea of using a doorstop (a.k.a. an Oliviastop) to keep the pantry door shut. I'd never thought of using a doorstop to keep a door closed, but it works beautifully. It's really too bad that almost all the other doors in the house open inward. I wonder how a doorstop would work on sliding closet doors...