Macgyver

What an exciting morning, and it’s only 8:03! Connor woke me up this morning at 6:30. I managed to get him to stay in bed with me until 7:00, then we went to play in his room. “Playing” in his room in the morning consists of him playing something while I lie in his bed and try to sleep a little bit more, saying “uh huh” when spoken too so he thinks I’m playing with him.

“Mommy, can you open my door? It’s locked.”

My mind is a little foggy as I think about this statement. “What do you mean it’s locked?”

“I locked it so my rope would stay in the door.”

Suddenly I am fully awake as I realize what this means. A few months ago, Derek and I decided to turn his nob around so we could lock it from the outside. Sounds harsh, I know. But we realized how much he hates to be made to stay in his room, and when he is having a tantrum, it’s a pretty effective way to ignore him until he gets a grip.

But this means that the only way to unlock the door is from the outside. We are totally locked in. I remember a few months ago Derek said we should put one of the keys in his room in case this ever happened. But did we do it? Nope.

So I start thinking, WWMD? What Would MacGyver Do? I try to unlock the door with various toys, outlet plugs, picture hangers, plasitc silverware, and little slivers of mysterious wood. Nothing is working. I don’t have a phone to call anyone. I know that I can go out Connor’s window and open the garage, but there are two problems with this solution. One, our monitored alarm system is set and will go off when the window opens. And two, I have been locking the door from the garage into the house, so I still may not be able to get back into the house. And if I don’t get inside before the alarm monitoring people call the house, the police will come.

Finally I decided this was going to be the only solution. I explain everything to Connor, and he puts on his Sherriff’s hat and tells me “don’t worry mom. I’m a police man and I will help you!” Cute kid.

So I open the window, climb out (in my pajamas, mind you…) with the alarm blaring, get the garage open, nearly step on a frog, get the the door, and with my breath held, I turn the knob…

…it opens. Shew. Crisis averted! At least now I know that our alarm works, and it is in fact being monitored. Within 2 minutes the phone was ringing to make sure everything was okay.

Now there is a key in Connor’s room in case something like this ever happens again.

What a morning! I am wide awake for sure!