Oh, What a Night

Not much excitement has gone on around here for the past week. Really none at all. Tyler has been working crazy hours and I feel as though I haven't even had a husband for the past 5 days. It's the year end close and he has multiple deadlines he is trying to meet. Today (Sunday), he actually was able to come home around 3:30 this afternoon. It was nice to have him around. Zach of course immediately asked his dad to play basketball with him, because it is their new favorite father son activity. After a long day of fun, Zachary decides to go in his room while I'm cooking dinner and closes the door. Dinner is done and set on the table. Tyler goes to open the door, and what do you know, Zachary locks himself in his room. Tyler begins to panic a little. I of course am like oh it's no big deal all you have to do is pull the end off of a Q-tip and stick it in the hole and it'll unlock or you can get a small Allen wrench. I used the Q-tip all the time as a kid on our doors at home you know Jessica always tried to lock me out and I had to get creative! Well, my friends, that didn't seem to work. The Q-tip nor the Allen wrench. And let me note that the hinges were on the inside with Zach, otherwise I know Tyler would have unscrewed that sucker instantly to let our baby out. We kept trying to talk to Zach then all of a sudden he wouldn't answer. Of course our hearts are pounding and Tyler finally yells at him to answer us, all Zach does is cry, but Tyler and I are relieved to at least hear him. We kept trying to explain to Zach how to UN-lock the door, but all he does is stand there in tearful frustration because he can't get the door to open. I try to talk to him and remain calm, which I half am because I know it's not the end of the world, but then of course I want to sit there and cry myself because my poor baby is trapped in his room. After endless trying with the Allen wrench we decide to call the maintenance man. After running through my head we could use AAA and call a lock smith, or that I would normally call my dad for help (But he's soaking up the sun in Cancun right now and my mom would consider the expenditure of extra roaming fees an emergency with her grandson being trapped in his room.) I figured the maintenance man would be able to do the most to help us. I called the office and explained to the answering service what had happened. Of course the young childless male who answered the phone started off with, "the maintenance people typically don't answer calls this late". I explain to him that I had tried to use an Allen wrench and I couldn't figure it out. He offers have you tried a credit card? Of course I am ballistic in my mind thinking don't offer me advice get the maintenance man to my apartment stat since this apartment complex has not provided me with any tools to open this door for instances like these. (I was kind enough to leave out any expletives that were present while these thoughts were thought.) With a panic stricken voice I reiterate to him it's my 2 1/2 year old son who is trapped in his room and is too young to understand how to let himself out. While I'm telling him this I attempt to use the credit card (which for some reason never crossed my mind) so that I could tell him it didn't work. Which it didn't. I never looked at the clock, but it has felt like an eternity at this point. Tyler continued to try to get the credit card to work while we waited for the maintenance man to call. I am running through my mind, do you think you could kick this door down, Julie? Would Zach move far enough out of the way so that when your foot and the door came flying into the room he wouldn't be hit? I kept my leg firmly planted on the ground while Tyler kept trying to get the credit card to work. The card seemed like no avail until he gave it one more shot and the door came flying open. (Everything always works on the last try right?) I called the office again to let them know we had freed our brave little soldier and the lady who answered sounded more concerned than the last guy. I was sure not to share that it was the credit card that worked, is that wrong? We made sure to tape over the lock with heavy duty packaging tape to make sure this would never happen again. Then after sitting down to a cold dinner (which was noodles...never good cold or reheated) with a cranky kid acting like his normal self. (Let's just face, it he's 2 people and they call them the terrible 2's for a reason.) Tyler comments, "maybe we should've just left him in there and tried to slide some pizza under the door."