Locked In

July 30, 2010

8:30am

I found that Kai had drawn a few things on our COUCH this morning. He never does that!

I told him to go to his room and think about what he had done and that I'd go in to talk with him about it shortly, once I had taken care of Jaiden's needs.

The otherwise obedient Kai walked into his room and as promised I went in soon after, closing the door to his room behind us so that I could talk with him one on one without any interruptions from Jaiden.

After a good heart to heart talk about what we can and cannot do when it comes to drawing and where we can draw, I felt satisfied that I had done my motherly duties and invited Kai to walk out of the room with me.

As I got up to turn the door knob and walk out, "click."

CLICK?!

I tried again.

the door knob wouldn't turn.

IT WAS LOCKED.

WE WERE LOCKED IN!

A few months ago, Ronny and I had believed it clever of us to turn the door knob (key side) around on the OUTSIDE of Kai's door, so that he couldn't lock himself IN.

That power would be left to us as parents...

That is, until today.

I kept wiggling the door knob and knocking on it, knowing that Jaiden had locked it and he was out on the run, FREE and alone in the big house.

I didn't have my phone on me, or my laptop, so there was no way to call or message my neighbors and ask them to come over. There were no cards and no lock picks around.

There really was NO way out.

I had locked all the doors this morning after Ronny left for work, so no one could come in an help us, even if I could get anyone's attention.

STUPID ME!!

I was mad at myself.

"Jaiden!? Please open the door!!??" I kept asking him in the sweetest voice I could conjure up.

"I have your whale :) I have a ball :) Open the door?"

Jaiden doesn't know what a key is, nor what "unlock the door" means, he must have just turned the key unknowingly.

(I'm still going to ground you for life for this!) I thought in my head as I sweetly and calmly begged him to open the door.

Mean while, Kai was LOVING this all of this excitement. He was making me pretend food in his room, making me GUNS out of blocks, reading me books about bugs, he even began to pat my head to comfort me after sensing that this was quite seriuos...

an hour must have passed by. I heard Jaiden singing along with ELMO on Sesame St., and then toot the recorder as he ran around the house.

He was having a BALL too.

I just prayed that I didn't leave any knives out in the kitchen, since he's been getting into the habit of climbing the counters and getting things out on his own lately.

Panic struck after about an hour and I resorted to climbing out of the window.

I climbed out of the window and onto the roof.

YUP, too high to jump off of.

I spotted a neighbor who was leaving for work.

"RAUUUUUL!!!!!" I yelled out-probably about 7 houses down from us. It was a fat chance he'd hear us, but it was worth the try. Of course, right then, a big LOUD UPS truck comes by, and also an airplane! Everyone and their dog wanted to mow their lawn right at that moment too!

I couldn't count on Ronny coming home anytime soon, he had JUST LEFT for work!

"RAUUUUL!!"

I tried again.

He looked my way.

I jumped up and down, waving my hands, being careful not to fall off.

"Help!!"

Him and his Indian wife looked my direction, then back at each other and bid their farewells as he drove off to work.

I guess they didn't see us...

so I watched and waited for anyone else leaving or coming out of their houses.

After about 10 minutes, I saw a Mexican man walk slowly down the street.

A-HA! NOW I KNOW WHY I WENT TO CHILE AND LEARNED SPANISH!

"HEY! HEY! ME AYUDAS?!" (won't you help me!?)

He grinned awkwardly at me standing on the roof, but seeing that I spoke Spanish, I think was more inclined to help-

BOY, WAS I EVER THANKFUL TO KNOW SPANISH TOO!!

"I need you to go and knock on that house over there, you see it? Knock on their door and tell them that "MONIKA NEEDS HELP" I was referring to our neighbor friends, Greg and Jill across the street, about 10 houses down from us.

"ok...tell them MONIKA NEEDS HELP", right? he repeated.

SI! SI!!

WE WERE FINALLY GOING TO BE RESCUED!

by this time, both Kai and I had to go to the bathroom really bad. I was telling Kai to go potty in one of his toy buckets, to which he looked at me with utter disgust and disbelief. lol

Well, I did think about letting him pee out of the window too, but didn't think that'd be right on a few levels...(no pun intended-lol)

I watched as the Mexican man go and do as I had asked.

GRACIAS, AMIGO...

he was our hero of the day.

He reappeared from around the corner shortly and a few other worker buddies of his rode up in a cool looking mower.

Our new friend hopped on the front of their mower, turned around and left.

uhh....

OK, WELL, THAT MUST MEAN THAT SOMONE IS COMING FOR US???

trying to stay positive, kai and I waited for Greg or Jill to show up...

30 minutes later...

"I guess no one's coming..."

So I waited on the roof again. Bees were flying above me and bugs were crawling at my feet.

I could hear Jaiden on the other side of the door. By now, he was hungry and crying, wondering when he was going to get his breakfast. I was hungry too...

Sesame St. was over, so it was now 10am.

It was another long time before anyone came or went, but finally, a lady dressed up in a business attire drove up in her big truck and stopped at the house in front of us. I ran around Kai's room in search of paper and a pen to ask her to deliver it to Greg and Jill's house or at least post it to their car...

That's where Kai started to yell.

"HELLO LADY! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?! CAN YOU PLEASE HELP US?!"

Where he learned to call out for help is beyond me, but WAY TO GO!

now don't you ever try this number on mommy and daddy though! lol

The lady looked up at Kai who was yelling out the window and she chuckled.

"Oh no :-)" she said, quite amused, I'm sure.

But Kai kept on yelling out.

"Lady! CAN YOU PLEASE HELP US? WE'RE STUCK IN HERE!!

MY SISTER LOCKED US IN!"

she chuckled again, not knowing how to respond to child's play.

By now, noticing that Kai had gotten her attention, I climbed out of the window again and explained what had happened. (easier said, this is quite an embarrassing act to do)

Finally, she got our neighbors to find us a lock pick, which they threw at me on the roof and

WE WERE OUT AT LAST!!

It's quite the interesting thing when a person feels that they are they trapped and cannot get out. As adults, we panic. Especially when there is an infant on the other side of the door and they have free range of the whole house, it's a VERY scary feeling.

Well, I'm glad this ended on a good note. No one was hurt and we all got out after only two hours (very long two hours)

Lucky for the Mexican amigo, we weren't trapped in the house with some PSYCHO PATH!

ugh.

Anyway, life is full of fun times. Never a dull moment with kids...