Trapping Jack

Sorry no pics for this.
Day 1 - Jack has learned to climb out of his crib. We assumed this day was coming because starting in August he would climb to the top of the crib and just sit on the side rail. We were mildly humored by it and thought it was a great sign of our parenting control that when we said - Jack get down - he would fall into the crib and lie down. But now he has finally figured out how to - rather he has finally decided to - throw his leg on the other side of the rail and drop to the floor. Again we were slightly humored and just gave him a stern NO NO Jack and plopped him back in the crib. He climbed out once more but we repeated the NO NO once more and put him back in the crib and thankfully he decided to stay and fell asleep.
Day 2 - OK we are no longer the least bit humored by Jack and his climbing out of the crib. After repeated NO NOs and finally resorting to spankings Jack still climbed out of his crib OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. He has decided it is a game and laughs the whole time. Oh he cries when he is put back in the crib but that too is just part of the game. That is the part of the game called - make it seem like my feelings are hurt and I won't climb out of the bed so I can get them to leave the room and then jump out again. OH MY WORD~!!!! So I watched how he climbed out. He pulls himself up by sheer upper body strength using the end of the crib. The end rail is higher than the side rail. He then latches on with his mouth - that's right HIS MOUTH - grab the side of the end rail with his left hand and then walks his feet up the side of the end rail until he can get his bottom even with the side rail. he then shimmies unto the side rail, sits for a moment and then grabs the side rail with his hands, swings his legs over and then lets himself down to the floor. He has a second maneuver which involves him just gripping unto the side rail with his hands and pulling himself up until his belly is level with the rail, then bending and swinging the legs over and dropping down. WE MUST COUNTER ATTACK!!
Day three - I came up with the following plans. Plan A - try the pak n play since the sides are taller. Plan B - put tights on him so his feet can't grip when he is climbing. We try out plan A first - that's why we called it plan A. It worked great!!! Now would be the time to point out two other things about Jack's climbing out of the crib. We did figure out that when he escape he would run to Olivia's bed and climb in with her. Out of desperation we did try and put him in bed with O one of the previous nights but he either rolled out of the bed or O pushed him and that gave him a bruise so we went back to the crib. The most horrible thing about him climbing out was that he would wake up at the CRACK OF DAWN, climb out, wake up Olivia and then the two of them would come running into our room. UGH, I hate being up before the sun is up. In fact I like the sun to be up for a good hour or two before I am.
Day four- Jack is still staying in the pak n play and this morning - Saturday morning - Olivia came running into our room and asked if she could climb in with Jack. We say YES! and went back to sleep as the kids played in the pak n play for at least another 30 minutes. It was quite adorable.
Day five. We think Jack figured out how to climb out of the pak n play by watching Olivia. So now he is out again. Time for the tights. But we can't find any of O's tights that might fit him. I remember that last year we had socks for Jack that he could not remove. So I found those - turned them inside out because of the grippers that are on all baby socks now so they won't fall when walking - WHATEVER - and we put them on Jack in the crib. Worked great! Thank goodness we will not need to come up with plan C.
Day 6. So I left the house to do some shopping and Eric put the kids to bed. When I come home Eric is about ready to commit murder - I can see it in his eyes. First he put a different pair of socks on Jack and he took them off and climbed out. Eric located the correct socks but then Jack was able to climb out even with the socks on. It was game time again for Jack, In, out, in, out, laughing all the way. Olivia too was thrilled with the action and laughed as much as Jack. INFURIATING!!!! Not to be beat Eric grabbed his power drill and went into the room to drill new holes and lower the mattress in the crib. Now I am not sure if Eric drilled the holes and then figured out that this quick fix wouldn't work or if he figured it out before attempted to Drill. Either way the problem was that if he lowered the mattress then the rails would not stay up. I told Eric not to worry I would take over Jack patrol and get him to stay in the bed. This was at 9:00 PM. The next four hours could be called grasping at straws, I sang, I rocked, I yelled, I yelled, I sang, I physically held Jack in the bed with my hand on his back. Each attempt would seem to work. He would quiet down, I would leave the room, I would stand outside the door for longer and longer periods of time but always ALWAYS Jack would climb out again. Finally at 11:30 I took him into bed with me and held him tightly in my arms while we both tried to sleep. 30 minutes later I was exhausted and Jack was up again. I looked at Eric and said Warm Milk? Eric heated up some milk, we gave it to Jack in a sippy cup and he calmed down and finally around 1:00 AM he was asleep. Eric put him back in the crib around 3:00 AM and Jack was out again by 6:00 AM.
Day 7 We got various suggestions from people. Apparently there is a vest you can buy that will velcro into the side of the bed and keep the kid locked down. We could also buy mosquito like netting and tie that around the crib so he couldn't stand up. - like he wouldn't use his teeth on that. We could just let him run wild til he dropped to the floor exhausted. And my favorite - booze him up. What Eric finally did was drill the holes in the crib, lower the mattress and then he did something so the rails would stay up - always, you can no longer lower them at all. And this was worked well for at past 6 days. But we are all just waiting.......