Ellis and Maddox sharing a room and bunk-bed has created a few problems, mostly for Ellis who finds himself being pestered when he wants to sleep and can no longer hide his treasures in his bed, because while Maddox is "napping" he likes to climb up to Ellis's bunk and rummage through his treasures.
Yesterday, he ended up going to sleep in our bed to avoid pestering, and when I moved him over to his upper bunk, he discovered that Maddox had been at it again, having thrown a number of "squinkies" (a toy of zero utility, yet treasured more than the cardboard box that gets 10-15 play-hours per week) all over the room.
So this morning he comes in to see me and we have the following conversation:
Ellis: Dad, um, today can we think about and work on some ways to keep Maddox from going up the ladder to my bunk?
Dad: I guess, but keeping Maddox out while making it so you can get in could be kinda tough. Do you have something in mind?
Ellis: I just want to keep him from getting up there and messing with my stuff.
Dad: Well maybe a different place for your stuff is what is needed? Or are we talking about stuff that you like to play with while you are going to sleep?
Ellis [a bit exasperated]: My shelf for treasure is full and my basement shelf for my lego creations is already full so where else?
(I do have some sympathy for him. There aren't many places that Maddox can't get to and he has no concept of careful or fragile.)
Dad: Ok. What do you have in mind? Is there someway to keep Maddox out but let you in?
Ellis: Well, I can go up one-handed, but Maddox needs to use two hands so maybe we can use that to help.
(I was pretty proud of him for coming up with this, even though it may not be entirely true.)
Dad: So you want me to grease up one of the side rails of the ladder? That would get pretty messy and Maddox would learn to go up one-handed pretty quickly.
(This had not occurred to him and made him smile.)
Ellis: Oh wait. I know, I know. I only need to protect my stuff when I am not there. So maybe I could hang a blanket over the ladder then place heavy objects that I had collected throughout the day on the top of the blanket where it comes up to my bed. Then when Maddox wanted to go up he would pull the blanket out of his way and the heavy objects would come down on his head.
Me: Well that does have he advantage that you might only need to do it once.
