Locked

When Mark and I designed our basement, we thought it would be a good idea to put a lock on the office door. That seemed like a good idea up until Isaiah was locked inside the room.

Before I continue, let me assure you that it is no one's fault that the baby was locked in the room. From listening to my kids, you would think that the door somehow magically locked AND closed itself. I've always believed in miracles. It was definitely not the girls fault. Micah couldn't really defend himself- he just said that Isaiah did it by himself.

Anyway, I was putting the kids to bed. The girls were already in their PJs, but the boys never showed up to put their PJs on. I walked downstairs into the basement and saw Micah playing with his blocks. Isaiah was happily sharpening pencils, crayons, tips of glue bottles, paperclips - what ever he could fit into the pencil sharpener. I walked towards him to stop his sharpening-fest when I tried to open the door. The handle didn't budge.

At first I was glad that he was sharpening random items. He had no idea that he was locked in the room. I went to the place where the keys were SUPPOSED to be. No luck. I looked where I keep the tools to open the doors that lock but don't have a key. No luck. This is when I started to get nervous. I looked back in the room. Isaiah was still sharpening, but he was running out of ammunition. Mark wasn't home yet. He had been installing a tankless water heater. He left at 7:30 AM and was still gone at 8:30 PM. I called him to tell him about the situation. He told me that he would be home right away.

I looked in a few more places. No keys. I ran downstairs. Now Isaiah's face was pressed against the glass panes on the door and he was tapping on the glass with his little fingers. He tried to open the door a couple of times, but the handle wouldn't budge. I grabbed Micah from his block building and placed him in front of the door. I didn't want Isaiah to be lonely.

Next, I opened the door to the furnace. The furnace is basically in the office closet. There was a little room around the side of the furnace, but not nearly enough room for me to fit in. There was insulation around the furnace and sharp corners. I didn't want to send the older kids that way. I glanced over at the door. Isaiah was drooling on the window and starting to whimper. Micah had wandered off somewhere. I grabbed him again and firmly told him to stay at the door and keep his brother company.

I decided to go out in the cold and try the window. It looked locked, but sometimes it won't lock all the way when the window is slightly open. As I worked on trying to remove the screen from the wrong side, Isaiah came over to the window and started to climb on top of the printer. As I was trying to get the window open, he climbed on top of the printer and leans towards the window so far that only one of his little feet remained on the printer. I was starting to worry that he was going to hurt himself and I wouldn't be able to get to him. I kept telling him to get down - he just kept whimpering and staring at me with his big, brown eyes as he was perched on one single foot.

At this point I decided to call Mark. I couldn't use the cordless phone because it was locked in the room with Isaiah, so I had to go upstairs. I grabbed Micah, who had wandered off again and put him back in front of the door. At this point, Isaiah had noticed that my laptop and a mouse were sitting on my desk. He started to climb on top of the desk. I grew even more worried.

As I dialed Mark's number, he came running in the door with a flash light. He descended into the basement and I pointed out that the only option I saw was to somehow make it through the closet. I was sure that he was going to use Christina, so I had already called her out of bed when I saw Isaiah starting to fall off the desk.

As a mom there is nothing worse that seeing your child about to fall of something when you are absolutely powerless to help. He was trying to hold onto the desk with his chunky little fingers, but there isn't a lot of traction, so he was starting to slide off the desk with his legs dangling. Right behind him was a small wooden chair at just the right angle to do damage to him. Mark saw the same scene. That was when he decided that he was going to make it no matter what.

Mark removed the insulation and started to squeeze his body between the unfinished wall and the vent shaft towards the room. He wasn't quite thin enough to fit, but he pushed himself hard and started making a moaning/grunting sound as he forced his body through the opening. Once he got past the vent shaft, I looked at Isaiah, and he was still trying to not fall off the table, but he was sliding a little bit at a time. Then, I heard an awful scraping sound and the door to the closet opened. Mark materialized and grabbed little Isaiah - who was very excited to see him. He wasn't without his battle wounds. There was a long scrape across his belly from a metal piece sticking out the side of the water heater and a red mark across his back from the light switch being shoved into his back as he squeezed by the water heater. Victory!

My personal project for tomorrow is to find the keys or get new ones made. Somehow it is supposed to be really easy to get a new key made (which kind of defeats the purpose of having keys in the first place). I am very grateful about this feature on my door hardware. I also get to reclean the office, which Isaiah made a mess of as he was climbing different surfaces. I guess it's just another day in the life of my family. Baby saved from certain doom: Check. Another injury (this time it was Mark's turn): Check. Mom needs the kids to go to bed so she can emotionally recover: Check.

My next blog is about Micah getting his fingers caught in an elevator door on Sunday. You just can't make this stuff up...