The magic door

I think one day Luke will grow up to build or design doors. I’m sure people like that are out there. How else would we have those automated doors, right? No matter how small or large the door, Luke will stop in his tracks to watch a door. When we go to therapy in Peoria, IL they have automated doors. So once we step in the magic place they slide right open and Luke just stops and stares, like they might never close again or something. Of course they can’t close until we move, and he won’t move until they close. You can see my problem. It is a never ending cycle. Of course, where we go has to have two sets of sliding doors in a row. So once we get through the first set, we aren’t done yet. So on those days you can see me putting pressure on his back saying “Come on, let’s go. We have to go inside in order to see them close.” While doing this I am usually juggling at least one diaper bag, if not two diaper bags and our 5 month old daughter in her infant seat. I tell you, after a while she gets so heavy I don’t have a lot of patience for those doors.


That is one of the worst cases we deal with. But the doors don’t need to be automated to get his attention. Whether it is church, Culver’s, our the other therapy place we go in Bloomington, IL or even at home; doors are the highlight of Luke’s life. Sad, but true.

On a nice day I open the main doors (leaving only the screened storm doors) in the front and the back of the house. It will occupy him for hours crawling from one door to the other. First, he’ll play with the front door until he accidently shuts it and can’t get it open anymore. Then, he’ll crawl to the back door and do the same thing there. I have learned that if I don’t want to keep opening the door for him, I put one of those small 8” diameter plastic balls in-between the main door and the storm door. That way when Luke tries to shut the door it just bounces back at him. And, of course his reaction is to laugh. And I mean laugh each time the door bounces back, it never ceases to be funny. Aahh…the simple things in life.