The Hole in the Door

Some days I feel like God just wants to test my ability to handle adventures. I think I did a pretty good job on this one and I now know how to handle this if it ever happens again.

This morning I heard Jeffrey messing around with the bathroom door. We have been keeping it locked when it isn't in use so that Bubba can't get in without someone helping him. I asked Jeffrey what he was doing and his response was, "just working mommy!" I figured he had some of his tools out and was trying to "fix" something so I didn't really worry until......

"Oooooops! Mommy! Oooooops!" Followed by the sound of running little feet. Before I knew it Jeffrey was standing in front of me with a broken paint brush. I was totally confused. I asked him what happened and he said, "I opened door!" Again, I was totally confused and he then said, "Come here mommy, I show you!" He took my hand and pulled me to the bathroom where he proceeded to point to the door handle. Sure enough, my little burglar had picked the lock with a paintbrush and had gotten it stuck and broke it off inside the lock. The only way to fix this was to remove the handle from the door and try to remove the broken piece from the inside of the contraption.

I asked him to get me a screwdriver and when he returned we began the process of removing the door handle. Now this is not a hard thing to do, for anyone who has never had experience in this form of home improvement. Two simple screws hold the entire thing together so it is very easy to remove it from the door. Upon pulling the outside piece away from it's home on the door I looked and realized that there was no way to salvage this handle. There was no back way into the lock and no sign of the orange plastic paintbrush blocking the hole. Darn, I guess we will need to go to Lowe's (secretly I love that place so it isn't really that big of a drag):-).

So while trying to piece things back together on the bathroom counter my precious child decided he would try to close the door. He quietly pulled the door shut while backing his way out of the room leaving me alone in a bathroom with no knob. At first I really didn't think it was a problem because I thought I knew how the insides worked enough to release the pokey thing from it's home in the door jam. Welllll, I thought wrong. I tried several things to try and free myself from the bathroom but nothing was working. I knew David had gone into our other bathroom a while back so I yelled for Jeffrey to come talk to me. He immediately came to the door and I told him to quickly go tell daddy that mommy is stuck in the bathroom. He ran away yelling something that I knew David would not be able to decipher and then I waited. I decided to use my time wisely (as this is the quietest trip to the bathroom I had been blessed with for a while). I brushed my teeth, washed my face and put some things away. I reorganized a drawer and then got really bored. I continued to wait but nobody came to rescue me. I yelled for Jeffrey again and he came running and I said, "Go to daddy and say MOMMY IS STUCK!" trying to make my words really plain for him to imitate. He said, "OK mommy" and went running off, again yelling in some other language that I knew David would not understand. This is the point that I realized I needed to start yelling for David myself. I yelled out several times but thanks to the good construction of this house you can't hear anything going on if you are on opposite ends of the house.

I continued to yell but I found that with each time I felt sillier and sillier. Soon I had some company. Bubba found his way to the door and began to sing to me. It was so sweet. I stuck my finger out the door hole and he held onto my finger and just sang! I remembered a scene in Dumbo when Mrs. Jumbo was held away from her baby and was trying to touch him through the small little hole she found. Yep, I was officially an animated elephant now.

Eventually, David came out of our room and heard my yells for help. He came to the door and after making sure I was OK, he began to laugh. The situation as a whole was extremely funny. After several attempts he figured out what to do and was able to free me. Whew! I won't have to be a bathroom mommy for the rest of my life!

After this experience I realized that I had been given the gift of getting ready in the morning by myself in the peace and quiet. I also realized that I have a 3 year old who can pick locks. So now we are on our way to Lowe's to find a lock that mommy and daddy can use but that Jeffrey can't pick.:-) Wish me luck!!!