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Locked Out

Yesterday was one of the scarier experiences of my life, and it’s all Rerun’s fault.  I’ll explain.

Lisa’s mom, Beth, was coming over yesterday for lunch and to make birthday party decorations.  Lisa’s party is on Saturday, and I came up with a decoration idea that used a butterfly punch and a flower punch.  So Beth was going to come over, and I needed to clean up the house.  Which included putting away the iron and ironing board in the garage.

Rerun followed me in as I carried the ironing board in, then scampered back out of the garage.  Before I could get back inside, he slammed the door shut and locked me in the garage.

I immediately tried knocking (well, banging) on the door and yelling “Rerun!  Rerun!  RERUN!  Come open the door!!”  Which he really can’t, because he is only two.  But he does like to try and turn the knob.  I thought that maybe if I could get him to jiggle the knob enough, it would unlock the door and I’d be able to open it.  The door that leads into our garage has a key hole, but we have never owned a key to it, as the previous owners never gave us one.  While there have been people locked in there before, there has always been someone to open the door on the other side.

Not this time.  And then Rerun realized that, even with all the banging and shouting going on, he couldn’t find his Mommy.  Which made him burst into hysterical tears.

Fortunately, luckily, blessedly… I had my cell phone in my pocket.  I called the Webmaster to see if he had any ideas on how to get me back inside to the wailing toddler.

“I’m in a meeting, hon -” were the first words out of his mouth.

“This is an EMERGENCY!”  I screamed.  “Rerun locked me in the garage!!!”

“WHAT??” he yelped.

After giving me permission to destroy the door if I had to, we decided that the best course of action was for me to go out through the garage door (which I could manually unlock), try to keep an eye on Rerun from the front (he had been watching The Empire Strikes Back in the living room and if he could see me, then he might calm down) and call my parents, who have a spare key to our house.  I knew my mother had been at the dentist, so I tried calling her cell as I went outside.  No answer.

I circled around to the front, where I could see poor little Rerun, lying on the couch, sobbing, watching his movie.  I tapped on the window, and he perked up immediately.  I could tell that he was relieved to see me, but he expected me to just walk in the front door.  I tried getting him over to the front door – he’s been messing with the locks lately, and I thought I might get lucky – but no.  Now that he could see me, the whole “Mommy through the window” experience was a huge game.  He climbed up on the coffee table that sits against the large picture window that looks into our living room, and began to talk to me and laugh at Mommy’s panicked expressions.  “High-five!” he said cheerily, holding up his hand to the glass to “slap” mine through it.

“This is NOT a high-five moment, buddy,” I told him.  I called my parents’ house.  No answer, though I knew my dad was probably home.  I called my mother’s cell again.  No answer.

So I called my dad’s cell, which I knew he would answer once he saw it was me.  “Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

“Rerun locked me out of the house and I need you guys to come over with the spare key,” I said in one breath.

My dad let out a laugh.  Then he asked me which was my house key, and he would have Mom drive it over.

Apparently, when she pulled in, he was waiting outside and told her what happened.  She then called me.  “I have the key, I’m on my way,” she said.

While I was waiting, Beth showed up.  “Congratulations,” I told her, as Rerun continued his ham-and-dance show in the window.  “You get to witness one of my most embarrassing moments as an adult.  Rerun has locked me out of the house.”

She doubled over laughing.  “That’s awesome.”

Two minutes later, my mom showed up and I yelled to her, “This is a blog post, you know!”

She laughed, and a couple of seconds later, Rerun greeted us cheerfully as we walked into the house.  Because there were witnesses, including his Grandma, I couldn’t wring the turkey’s little neck.  He had no idea he’d done anything wrong, anyway.  I was just SO incredibly grateful that nothing bad had happened to him, so now it could be an incredibly funny joke that we can tell for years to come.

And Rerun went down for a nap immediately after lunch.  Even though he wasn’t tired yet.  It didn’t matter.  I was tired.

Oh, and we are SO replacing the lock on the door into the garage and stashing a spare key in a hidden spot somewhere.  I never ever EVER want to go through this again!!!

3 Responses to “Locked Out”

  1. Nana
    April 26th, 2012 07:24
    1

    Thank God for cell phones, and that you had one on you!! Then there’s the risk of it ending up in the wash, which happened to me ONLY ONCE, but now I just check all pockets. Rerun’s antics made us howl with laughter, a story to be repeated.

  2. Friend
    April 26th, 2012 08:40
    2

    Have you never noticed that the door to our garage has tape over the twisting lock part? Yes, my kids did that to me too… And we now have a key hidden as well.

  3. Auntie
    April 26th, 2012 17:57
    3

    Its ok I’ve been locked out of your house too when i was baby sitting, and that was before I had a cell phone! I had to use the neighbor’s phone! Change you sliding glass door too while your at it!