This happened awhile ago but I need to record it because it’s definitely an event worth remembering! Kate went through a stage a long time ago of locking her door and closing it. Sometimes with her in the room or not. She just liked pushing the little button. It got annoying always finding a wire hanger, ruining it and unlocking the door. I finally turned the knob around so she couldn’t do it anymore. In hindsight it would have been smarter just to take the door handle off…
One early morning, Kate, Abby, and I were playing in Kate’s room. All of a sudden I heard Kate slam her door and then giggle. I just KNEW what happened. Sure enough we were locked in. I searched her room but apparently a 2 year old didn’t have too many tools or sharp objects in her room. We were stuck, with no phone! Now this was about 9AM and Jason was getting home from work around 6PM if not later that week. Problem! If it had been later I could have waited it out, but Abby was just a baby who wouldn’t understand and both girls would have been starving.
There isn’t a home behind us and our neighbors on the side can’t see the back of our house so I couldn’t yell for help or anything. Since I had to do something there was no point in waiting around. I took Kate’s sheets off her bed and tied one end to the wood slats under her mattress. I don’t know any special knots so I just put some weight on the mattress and tugged really hard to see if it would hold. Seemed okay. Apparently it’s hard to tie sheets together so I took the rope like material from a bag she had to tie the fitted sheet to the top sheet. I had baggy pajama pants on and was afraid they would get caught on something so I took them off. (I was definitely a sight to see and so glad no one saw)!
I threw the sheets out the window while threatening Kate to almost tears to stay away from the window and help keep Abby away. My biggest fear was she’d lean out to watch me and fall. It was kinda hard swinging that second leg over the windowsill. My shirt, of course, got stuck on the nail where the screen went. I learned at that moment that I can support my entire body weight with one hand as I reached up to free my shirt. I shimmed down, ran in the back door, upstairs, and freed the girls.
That was a fun morning
PS. I worked up the nerve to do this by saying it’s just like repelling. Um, yeah except for the part that I had no harness and would have to actually support my body weight and hold on. Didn’t quite make that realization ‘till I swung both legs over…
