Locked... IN!!!

We get locked out of houses and cars. There are lock outs in sports, but rarely do you here about people getting locked in. 

Well, we had TWO lock ins in a matter of only 24 hours! 

It was April Fool's. Started like any other day with the added "I'm pregnant!" April Fool's jokes. (I only throw that in there because many thought what I am about to tell you was a joke... IT WASN'T!) I had been doing the house chores, just moved onto the laundry. Everything was folded or on hangers and just needed to be placed in the closet. Now, our closet is so short that I have to crawl in and out of it to put things away. There is no way to open the door from inside the closet, so I always leave one foot hanging outside the door (until I have to turn around to get out) in order to keep it from closing on me. Ethan, of course, was hanging out with me having a ball. I got everything put away and as I turned to get out of the closet Ethan reached out and pushed on the door... LOCKING ME IN THE CLOSET! He immediately realized what had just happened and began crying. I was able to calm him down through the door as I sat inside trying to think up a solution to the current situation. I knew that my bedroom door was open and there was no gate set up at the top of the stairs... AHH!!! 

I sat in the closet thinking of all the things that he could get into that might hurt him, as well as trying to figure a way out. I was pushing and pushing with no luck. It felt like if i pushed too hard I was going to break the door. The door is not a perfect fit so I even tried pulling the door towards the hinges to get it out of the lock only to be disappointed. I tried bending a hanger but couldn't get the hanger up high enough for it to be of any use. All the while I am pushing my face into the ground trying to watch Ethan from underneath the door. I am talking to him and banging on the door to keep his attention in the room.

Praise God that he listens to me for the most part. From the time he was six months old (two months prior to this) I had been working on him listening to me and have been receiving promising results too. I came to the conclusion that as long as I could keep him in our room I had time to try and find a way out of the closet without breaking the door, especially considering we just don't have the money to be intentionally breaking things around our home. 

I have to say that I probably had every emotion except maybe anger go racing through me during my time in the closet. I had to laugh at certain points because well, my 8 month old managed to lock me in my closet. I was heartbroken at times because Ethan would see me stick my fingers out from under the door to let him know I was still with him and it would cause him to cry. Frustration ran through my body because I couldn't get out and I was praying up a storm that Spencer would come home between pre-clinicals and class, only to realize as time passed that Spencer would not be coming home before class. UGH!!! 

About 45 minutes into this ordeal Ethan started to get really antsy wanting to leave the room. At this point I began making as much noise as possible only to create a bigger problem (one I was afraid of). My noise attracted the dogs... Ethan LOVES the dogs. My sweet Miracle was not my miracle worker this time around though. She actually bailed on me leaving the room. Blessed as I am Faith, thankfully, kept Ethan's attention and she stayed in the room with us. She was so sweet sitting at the closet door crying because she couldn't get to me (She likes to cuddle). 

After an hour of crazy ideas and no luck getting out of the closet I made the decision to break the door if I had to but I was getting out! I felt up the door to find where the lock was. Placing both my hands over the location of the lock, I stood up as much as I could and began shoving! After about the 7th shove I came FLYING (not exaggerating) out of the closet. Made Ethan jump but he immediately began laughing. 

An hour earlier I had just finished the household chores. Now, an hour later, I had a whole new chore... picking up my room after Ethan had free rain to anything and everything he could get his hands on. We said a little prayer praising God for keeping Ethan safe and helping me escape my dungeon. Then we took pictures and called Grandma Leonard to share our story and laugh a little at the humor of it all. 

The lock ins don't stop there though! The very next day, Spencer, Ethan, and I went out to run some errands. We ALWAYS put the garbage and the dog food in the main floor bathroom because Miracle has a way of letting us know she doesn't like to be left at home while we go out. I guess this time we didn't get the bathroom door shut all the way because when we returned home we had a few surprises to greet us. Spencer was the first in the door and all he could hear was crying. He was able to locate Faith but Miracle was nowhere in sight. He checked to see if she had knocked the gate down to get up stairs but found the gate still standing. Spencer began to panic as he came to tell me but stopped dead in his tracks at the bathroom door, realizing crying was inside the bathroom. However, I think it is fair to say that a feeling of annoyance set in as he opened the door to the bathroom finding the garbage (including bad fruit) ALL over the floor and Miracle sitting in the shower. We have no idea how she managed to lock herself in there or how long exactly she had been there but were grateful it was in the bathroom rather than scattered through three different rooms. Spencer cleaned up the bathroom and we had to sit back and laugh wondering who would be next to get locked in somewhere. 

Lesson to learn: If you are ever at our house and you hear a crying or banging coming from the other side of a door, you might want to make sure a Hill hasn't gotten locked in on the other side of the door. ;)