It was a rather interesting day here at the Barker household today. It started off normal - breakfast, hanging out in our pajamas, playing cars, and a few other things. Next thing I notice I hear Ethan asking for help from inside our master bedroom. He goes in there to play all the time and closes the door. He is good enough to close them, just not good enough to open them. Then the doosie comes - he locked it. We are't talking one of those nice locks where I can stick a butter knife in and turn it or pop it open with a bobby pin. We are talking a KEYED LOCK!!

And since this is all lucky enough to happen on a Saturday the office here at our apartments is not open at 9 am. Of course I know this because I ran down to the office to see if anyone was there. Why didn't I just call you might ask? I did. They're answering service wasn't working correctly and there was not an option for maintanence emergencies. How convenient. EVERY other time that I have needed something stupid done - it has worked just fine!!

Well, needless to say by the time that a few failed phone calls to the office and a trip down there later, Ethan was in tears and crying on the other side of the door wondering why on earth I had not opened it for him yet even though he could plainly hear me panicking on the other side of the door.

So... what do I do?? I called 911 of course. I had never picked up a phone book when we moved here and the only phone numbers I have programmed into my phone is the pediatrician and poison control. I didn't want to take the time to look up the local police stations number online so that leaves 911. After they got my address and phone number and found out that my wonderful 18 month had locked himself in the bedroom they assured a somewhat over pancicked pregnant woman that her first born would out in no time and that someone was on their way.

While I waited for someone to come I grabbed Ethan's bucket of cars and tried to keep him occupied by 'playing' cars with him under the door. That didn't last long. So I broke out the big guns. The one thing that works like magic in our house.

COOKIES

These are by far the cheapest cookies ever made but worked wonders this morning. As soon as one little cookie showed under the bottom of the door the crying stopped and I had a happy little boy once again. A big thank you to Grandma Youngberg for discovering this wonderful snack and even giving us this box!

About five or so minutes after I hung up with the operator a very nice police man knocked on my door and cracked the lock for me. He was very nice and told Ethan not to do it again. Ethan was so happy to be out (not evident in the picture above - but he really was!) that he even gave the police man a high five.

As soon as the office here opened I called and complained about the answering service not working and requested (or required - however you would like to look at it) the key or a new door knob. They have yet to come and do anything about it so right now we have a make shift way of keeping the door open. We shoved a dish rag between the back of the door by the hinges and the wall. That way Ethan can try as he might to get that door shut but it will never happen. At least for a while!