The good and the bad

This morning Sam didn't come in to our room punctually at 6:40AM which he usually does, which is when his clock turns yellow. I thought maybe he was sleeping in as we had gotten to bed late last night. At around 7AM I heard his door open, but then he never emerged in our room. I waited a few minutes thinking he had maybe gone downstairs (which would be very unusual), but didn't hear him downstairs talking to Jason or anything like that. At 7:10AM I decided to check his room and found him reading by the sliver of light coming through his window shade and still in bed because the clock was blue. It hadn't turned yellow at 6:40 like it's supposed to. I went over to the clock and manually changed it to yellow at which point Sam excitedly got out of bed and exclaimed, "My clock is yellow!" Our color-changing clock has obviously worked.

That was the good. Now for the bad. Due to Matthew eagerness to climb up stairs, but inability to climb down them without serious injury, we now have gates at the top and bottom of our stairs. A few times a day Sam, Matthew and I all trek up the stairs, full of giggles and excitement. However, Sam likes to encourage Matthew to climb up the stairs more often. Sam sometimes stands on the stair-side of the gate at the bottom of the stairs and Matthew, of course, eagerly crawls over to him. Matthew then pulls himself up onto the gate and shakes it like a convicted felon while Sam laughs and encourages him. I usually rush over at this point to get Matthew down (the gate is up one stair) so he doesn't fall backward and hurt himself. Sam never played on the stairs like this before, just when we installed the gate. What's even worse is that Sam will hold the gate open for Matthew to climb through, which he of course, does eagerly. To Matthew it's a game. He gets to climb up the stairs and Mommy runs after him which he giggles about. After a few times of Sam holding the gate open, me retrieving Matthew and him giggling, Matthew realizes that it's not a game, but actually he's being restrained which results in crying and screaming. I have not figured out how to deter Sam from holding the gate open. Time outs don't work. Spanking doesn't work. Nothing works. He just keeps doing it. Any suggestions?