Locked out

One thing that Rob & I have just revelled in lately is how T can open the screen & sliding door to the deck for our dog when he wants in or out. It is so neat to see him to that! So a few days ago, Rob & I went out on the deck to set up the timer for our plastic pumpkin (it is in our front yard, but the outside outlet is in the back.) Most of the time I'm pretty good at foreseeing a situation play out with T, but my mind was not on alert mode at this point. So while Rob & I were plugging in the timer for the pumpkin, T saw the doors open, walked across the living room, and promptly closed and LOCKED the door. Then - well, we may as well have had movie cameras or America's Funniest Home Videos filming us - we stood there knocking on the glass door, asking to be let in, all the while our son was sitting on the floor, easily kicking back and drinking from his sippy cup, glancing up at us occasionally but having no idea that mommy and daddy were locked out - and making absolutely no move to let us in. Again with the double edged sword - our son was unable to respond to "come here" or "come open the door" - definately potentially dangerous - but at the same time, he knows how to close the door just from watching us do so. (Kids with autism don't do this very easily or at all - most everything needs to be taught hand over hand and very deliberately.) At least we knew that we had a spare key hidden outside for just such occasions and we were able to laugh at it! So we used the key and all was well in a matter of moments...and I'm certainly wary of going on the deck without T with me now!