Joel's unintended new freedom

Before Cecilia was born I started letting Joel go without direct supervision a little bit more.  As long as I knew he was downstairs and not in the kitchen or office I was ok with not being able to see his every move.  Occasionally he would try to escape and go upstairs, but Vince would alert me.  I would usually get up the stairs about the same time as he made it to the top.

Joel navigates the stairs pretty well.  He does great going up, but I don't trust him coming down the stairs by himself.  If no one is around he will turn and go down on his belly or sit on his but and go down the stairs.  However, if he sees an adult around to help him he will just attempt to walk down.  Once Joel sees you are nervous he laughs a sinister little laugh and thinks it is hilarious that whatever he is doing makes you nervous or is against the rules. 

This week I have been giving Joel more independence more out of necessity than because I thought he could handle it.  He seems to know when I am nursing Cecilia and has realized he can get away with just about anything.  Vince used to do the same thing when Joel was born, but 95% of the time I would convince him to read books with me on the couch.  Several times Joel has made it all the way upstairs to the play room.  Which in and of it self is fine, but I worry he will get into the bathrooms and make a mess with the toilet paper or throw random things in the toilet.   His favorite thing in the bathroom is actually the plunger!  I also worry that he will try to scale one of the dressers.  I have learned to just keep all the doors upstairs shut except for the door to the toy room.  Then as soon as Cecilia is done eating I can race upstairs and supervise what is going on.

That plan worked until yesterday when somehow the attic door had popped open.  It didn't take Joel long to figure it out!  I went upstairs looking for him about 5 minutes after he went upstairs with Vince.  Vince was playing in the hall and told me Joel was in the toy room.  About that time I heard footsteps above my head and panicked!  Joel was up in the attic, bare foot, and the attic is not the safest place in our house to play.  I ran up the attic stairs with Cecilia in my arms and Vince begging to follow me.  As soon as Joel saw me he ran to the far corner laughing the whole time!  He was not happy when I picked him up and brought him back downstairs.

Today Joel and Vince went upstairs to play and I followed them less than 2 minutes later.  Once again Joel was no where to be found.  Vince was playing with blocks in the hall.  Again I asked Vince where Joel was because Joel will not answer you when you call to him.  Vince told me he didn't want Joel bugging him so he locked him out of the hallway!  Vince put Joel in Cecilia's room and shut the door so Joel couldn't bother the blocks Vince was playing with in the hallway.  While I give Vince credit for solving his own problem without beating his brother up I still don't like that he locked his brother in a room alone.

Clearly we are going to have to come up with a new plan for playing upstairs without supervision!  I know better than to think I can stop it all together.