He's waking up even earlier?!

This morning it was 4:30 instead of 5:00 am when Nate woke up. I took him back to bed twice but he still didn't go to sleep. At about 5:30 Scott reported to me that he had gone downstairs and gotten gum out of my purse. Scott got him back upstairs and closed the gate at the top of the stairs so he was at least trapped on the top floor with me. At this point he and Ava discovered each other's company. They started playing in her room and finally enticed me out of bed at 5:45 when I heard the water running in my bathroom and the sound of Nate trying to fill my water glass I keep in there. (Mental note: switch the glass out for a plastic cup.) So we went downstairs together and I got Nate some milk and dry cereal in a bowl and he sat by me on the couch to watch cartoons while I snoozed some more.

A little while later Brenna came downstairs and said "Good morning", which woke me back up. I look over and Nate has pooped, taken off his diaper, and deposited the poop on the living room floor. I clean this up and decide it's time to be fully awake lest something even more horrifying happen.

So after breakfast and getting the girls their clothes, I head upstairs for just a minute. I get distracted by something and then hear a strange noise downstairs, like a door being banged. As I head down to see who had gone out into the backyard I meet Nate coming up the stairs with a piece of mulch bark. The kind we have in the front yard.

Sure enough, the front door is open and he has attempted to re-lock the door that apparently he unlocked all on his own, but he has locked it before closing the door and the deadbolt is preventing him from closing it. At this point it's not quite 7:30.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted and this little guy is a heck of a lot tougher to parent than his sisters!