Never a Dull Moment

That's a pretty accurate way to sum up my life since kids entered the picture; however, I think our adventure yesterday tops the charts.

I was getting a few chores done in the morning before heading off to a playgroup scheduled for 10 a.m. The kids were playing in their bedroom when I walked in loaded up with clean clothes, and began hanging them in their closet. All was well...until I heard the bedroom door shut, and Cole asked, "Momma, do you have a key for this door?"

I immediately felt sick. I ran over to the door and confirmed my fear--we were locked in. One of our best discipline tricks is turning the doorknob on the kids' bedroom lock-side-out so that we can use their bedroom for time out. In El Segundo, I had the tool necessary to unlock the door stored in their bedroom. Unfortunately, in our new place I hadn't gotten that far yet. I started tearing through their bedroom, looking for something I might use to pick the lock, and found a ballpoint pen...score! That's all we need to unlock the downstairs bathroom (which I've had to use numerous times since we moved in and locking us out became Weston's favorite pastime)...but I attempted the same maneuver on this door with no success. I had no other tools at my disposal. No phone, either. To make things worse, the kids' room is on the third floor of our townhouse...no jumping out the window to escape. I began to panic. Luckily (I guess?!?) all three of us were locked in there together, so I didn't have to worry about Weston wandering the house unsupervised. But that was about the only positive thing I could think of.

I opened the window to their bedroom, which faces the common area between our row of townhouses and the row behind us. It would've been nice if we were facing the parking lot, where more people are likely to walk by, but we weren't...at this point I figured our only hope was to call for help and hope someone would come by and rescue us! I called several times with no response, so after awhile I just sat by the window and hoped someone would pass by. Weston started asking for a drink, and I started contemplating my future...trapped in a tiny bedroom with a 4-year-old and 2-year-old from 9 a.m. until at least 5 p.m., when we could hope that Brian might come home from work on time. No bathroom, no food, no water. We would survive, but it was going to be miserable.

After about 30 minutes of staring out the window and praying for someone to walk by, I caught movement. A girl, probably in her 20's, came walking along the sidewalk which passed our window maybe 20 feet off to the right. I called out, "Hey, can you hear me? I need help! Can you help me?" She glanced over her shoulder, and without breaking stride, continued walking. I became desperate and called more loudly, crying, "Please!! I know you can hear me. I'm trapped in my house with small kids. Can you come help? Please?" She continued walking, glancing over her shoulder often enough that I felt confident she heard me, but never hesitating or giving any indication that she was considering helping. I was shocked and angry, and starting to panic. What if nobody would help, even if several came within earshot? It was a devastating feeling.

I started alternating between watching at the window and making more futile attempts at the doorknob. Where on earth is MacGyver when you really need him??

Luckily, it wasn't much longer before I saw someone from the townhome across from ours walk out onto the balcony. I called out to her and asked her if she could help. She didn't speak English, but she found someone who did. I explained our situation and told her that I thought our front door was unlocked. Would she be willing to come in, come upstairs, and unlock the door? She said she would. In a minute or two she returned, though, and said that the door was locked. My mind started racing. What would we do now? Brian's work is close enough that he could drive home, but we haven't been here long enough for me to memorize his phone number. Rats!!! And I can't think of another soul who would have it. She called up to me, "Should I call the police?" I couldn't think of a better option, though I was cringing inside. How mortifying.

Just to make it a little more interesting, she hung up after her call and said, "They said this isn't an emergency." What?!? So, what would it take to constitute an emergency? A fire in the kitchen on top of it all? I asked her if she had mentioned that I had two small children with me. She hadn't, so she called back, and that did the trick. I'm glad it worked, but I'm just a little miffed that if it had just been me, I wouldn't have been worth it. Oh well.

So, the firetruck showed up, complete with a troop of very friendly firemen. I now blame the "it's not an emergency" issue on a dispatcher, because the firemen were awesome. I expected a lecture of some sort, or at least a question or two about why our doorknob was turned backward, but not a thing of the sort. They very cheerfully put their ladder up to the balcony, climbed up, then hoisted the ladder up to the window, and a fireman jumped in the kids' bedroom window (imagine the size of their eyes!) and used some nifty fireman tool to pry the lock open, and we were free. The fireman talked with the kids for a minute (turns out he has boys the same age, so maybe he understood my plight a little), invited us to come down to the fire station anytime for a tour, and off they went.

Last night as I laid in bed, thinking about the whole thing, it occurred to me that it might be nice to take the firemen a plate of cookies. Today Cole and I baked a batch and took them down to the fire station. True to their word, they gave us the grand tour of the station and the fire engine, and even let Cole get in and operate the lights on the fire truck. They loved it.

All in all, it turned out okay. It definitely could have been much worse. Brian laments that the firemen left a path of destruction in their wake (some bent window screens and the back gate off its hinges) which he had to repair. I'm just hoping that's as exciting as our life will get for a long, long time.