Sheryl, we have ltc in a toddler bed in a very childproofed room with child safety handles on the inside of her door so that she cannot get out. She can get up, but she stays in her room. I don't know if that would be an option for you.

Timelies all!

sj, we put something on the inside doorknob that's supposed to keep kids from opening the door. He figured it out and now he gets out all the time. Other than putting a lock on the outside of the door(and we know that's not a good idea, safety-wise) we don't know what to do.

Would an open door with a gate work? Some of my friends do that. Duct tape around the toddler handles?

We hold the door closed. Not the most elegant solution, but it works. We also instituted a sticker chart and a bedtime pass system. It took a while, but bedtimes now are much improved from just a month or two ago.

These are the door knob covers that I use. If you were to use strong tape along the seams, they are hard to get off, I know because ltc broke one and we had to tape it back on.

Oh, yay, I still know how to do this! I can still log on and post and all!

Um, I'm not entirely sure if the Natter thread even is the place for this (not that I have any idea where is - Delurking, maybe? When it opens again in a couple of weeks?), and I already apologize that it's once again in a skipping-lots-while-ignoring-ongoing-conversations-and-poking-my-head-for-a-short-time manner, but it's that time of year again, and, yeah, still (and probably forever) in a risk of sounding a bit strange:

On Tuesday evening (as most of you clever people probably already know) starts the Jewish holiday of 'Yom Kippur', which means 'Day of Atonement'.

This is a day of soul searching, of trying to better define our faults to ourselves, and try to accept it upon ourselves to become, at least a little, better people. A day of repenting past wrongs we did, looking and finding it in our hearts to forgive wrongs done to us, and trying to remember to learn from this process in the rest of the days of the year. The holiest day of the year for practicing Jews.

On a rough division, there are two kinds of wrongs people can do: against G-d, and hurting their fellow human beings. In Jewish tradition, if the person committing a sin against G-d is truly sorry for what they did, repenting and taking it upon themselves to try and avoid repeating it, G-d forgives those sins.

The deeds which hurt other people, though, are not so 'easily' and personally forgiven. If somebody did anything to harm another person, they would not be able to cleanse themselves from that deed, no matter how much they'd pray and be sorry and repent and try to do good in the future, unless they make amends with the person who was hurt by that deed. As long as peace between people is not achieved, the 'sin', so to speak, is not 'erased from the books' above.

Regardless of the date in the year, I'd hate to think I'd offended somebody here (or everywhere else, for that matter). I don't think that the attempts of becoming a better person than one already is, is something that needs a date or a certain holiday for it, of course. It's just that, for me, having a certain day in the year to stop my daily runnings around, and think of nothing else but the really important things, is a good reminder of the order of priorities I'd like to have in my life.

So, since Wednesday will be, for me, this day of soul-searching, of trying to create a new start in my on-going effort of 'becoming a good human being, or at least a slightly better one', I would like to ask all of you here, if I offended anybody, or hurt any of you lovely people, to tell me about it, and give me the opportunity to apologize, fix it if possible, and also learn from my mistakes, and try to not repeat them (there are so many new ones to practice, why repeat old ones, you know?).

In case I offended anybody, and can't communicate directly with them about it (for whatever reason, especially with my ongoing absebce from the computer in the last few - I'm not even sure how to call it, years? ice-ages?), I can already say that I'm truly sorry. I can honestly say that I didn't mean to - you're all so considerate and thoughtful and generally all-around lovely, that there's absolutely no room for such a thing here. However, I might have had a slip of a keyboard, or mistaken somebody's intentions, or many other possible so forths. Y'all are so understanding, you probably tried to find excuses for me and didn't take offense anyway, but I want to make sure, all the same.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm definitely not trying to go around in a 'holier-than-thou' show off, or force my personal beliefs on others, or make statements which may be understood as criticizing anybody else's beliefs (or lack thereof) and way of living. If anything, being around here, among such a rich versatile group of kind and clever people, has exposed me to a lot more ways of choosing to lead one's life than I've ever had a chance to see before, and has shown me much more of the beauty and richness that is the world we live in.

[Edit: this is especially true these last recent years, with my oh-so-short time-not-in-front-of-students-or-kids, computer time and internet access, which gave way for too many opportunities to unintentionally miss stuff or seem to ignore (undeliberately!) people or their posts.

Sometimes in absence you can hurt people just as much as when you're present. Or even more so, only differently. And at the same time, you guys are always so there-for-anybody-who-needs (including little me - even when I don't get to get to the computer, I still know that you're there, that no matter what, if I ask, you're there for me, even after all my absence and lack of giving back).

So this is a chance to also post: Thank you.]

[Edit: I can fit this in one post! Really, really I can!]

Nilly, it is always a joy to see your pixels. You have never offended me, and you are always welcome here.

Nilly, I was thinking of you on Rosh Hashanah and wondering if you still made your Yom Kippur post.

It is good to see your pixels (and it delighted me that you posted on the 17th).

How are you?