With two boys under the age of 4, there is truly never a dull moment. Today is but a simple example of the adventures that we experience daily as stay at home mothers of toddlers.....
We had just finished lunch and my boys jumped down to embark on a game of hide and seek before nap time. This alone is comical enough because the rules of hide and seek are very specific to a 3 year old, and that doesn't always transfer to a 2 year old mind or even correspond to the actual rules that the rest of the world adheres to. Either way, I stay at the table to help the little girl I keep finish her lunch so that she can play too. As a mother you become an expert of sounds.... there are sounds that you're used to (banging, yelling, laughing, the clanging of certain toys or objects etc.) and sounds that alarm you (like the jiggling of a handle that won't open, or comments of a toddler like..."i didn't really pee on the floor Sam, I was just pretending").
As I helped Anna eat I heard what sounded like someone stuck in the closet. Assuming it was my youngest, I yelled for Steven to open the door for him. To which he responded, "I can't." Sigh says the 6.5 month pregnant mother as she rises from the table to take care of the problem herself. I get to the linen closet door and realize it is indeed locked and Sam is indeed inside. I actually happened to be talking to my mother-in-law on the phone at the time and she calmly suggests getting an ice pick - the obvious response, we all learned to pick doors as children right?
Well, I didn't, my sister was the champion of that at our house. But it is currently beside the point, because this happens to be a door that needs a key to be opened. To further complicate the situation I have NO idea where the key is and my husband is unreachable. I find a key that fits the lock but it won't turn. After walking through several options with Sally.... looking for external screws, ways to take the handle off.... we conclude that we may have to call the fire department. Somehow Sam is in there quietly playing with things on the shelf and completely oblivious that this is a big deal. I try coaching him on how to turn the internal knob lock, but frankly I'm not even sure that door has one, and he responds with, "I can't, I'm busy."
I happen to look out the door and see my neighbor, a man in his late 50s with daughters my age who are both currently pregnant. I figure if anyone will help me, it would be him. So I sprint across the lawn (I didn't even think I could run at this point - how wrong I was.) and ask him to come help. He calmly walks in and after about 10-15 minutes of unsuccessful attempts he manages to pop off the hinges and pry the door open from the wrong side (this was trickier than you would think since it was locked). I hug the man.....a man whom I have maybe spoken 15 sentences to in my life, and then continue with the beginning of nap time procedure.
The thing that sticks with me through this was how unaffected Sam was. He walked out smiling and when my neighbor Keith asked him if he had a good time in there, he smiled and said, "yeah." He even, just before we pried the door off, started sliding photographs under the door out of a miscellaneous box of things I need to scrapbook. Sigh.... children. So now I sit on my couch with a latte wishing it were a glass of red wine - but for many obvious reasons (pregnancy, 2 in the afternoon, babysitting other peoples children while mothering my own), I stick to other addictive substances like caffeine and sugar.
So now the door sits propped against the wall in the hall, awaiting the return of my husband who is in for a good story, some handy work, and turning the knob of that door around so it can never be locked from the inside again!
Thank you Sam for teaching me something I otherwise would not have learned, how to take locked door off its hinges. I'm sure I'll be able to thank him for many other bits of information as I raise him as well.
