Thursday, October 18, 2007

Stupid, stupid, STUPID rookie mistake. And we went on a field trip too

Scroll past the pictures to read all about how my daughter is exactly like me. Only thank God we don't live in Ontario so I didn't have to brave subzero temperatures.





















Today was one of those days where I can't explain, it's probably because I didn't get enough sleep, but I just felt like it was a bad day. After we got home from our field trip, which was really fun despite the rain, cold and wind, I decided I needed to run to WalMart. Andrew was napping so I took both the kids and headed out. Considering it was almost dinner time and we'd had a pretty full day, the kids did pretty well. A bit grizzly but we were doing okay. When we pulled into the parking lot, I even found a spot next to a shopping cart. I threw a seat cover on the seat for Tink and told Davey to stand in the cart while I ran as fast as I could through the rain to the store.

Walmart here is not as good as the one in Langley so despite chugging back and forth and to and fro I couldn't quite find everything I needed. I did however find an old friend from my second cup days. Then we stopped quickly at the health food store. By this time it was getting late and the kids were hungry and tired.

I ran through what was now torrential downpours to the car. Unlocked it and threw Davey into his seat while Iran to the other side to put Tink in her seat. Keys in my mouth, I struggled to get my frozen hands to work the seat belt on Tink's chair. That's when she gleefully pulled them from out of my mouth and started playing with them. Whatever gets her to stop wriggling I thought to myself. Uh hunh. You know where this is going, don't you?

Once she was secured, I scrambled to the trunk to load up my shopping. Wisely leaving Tink's door open so I could retrieve my keys and give her a snack. Oh I'm so smug sometimes. You could tell I was getting tired at this point. I looked up to her open door and thought, why did I leave that open, it's just letting all the rain in. And gave it a slam shut. Throwing the last bag into the trunk I suddenly realized my mistake...just in time to slam the trunk shut and hear the 'click' of Tink locking all the car doors.

My mind immediately started racing towards possible rescue scenarios...none of them really feasible. I didn't have my cell phone and though we have a spare set of keys, we don't know nayone who could pick them up or lend Andrew a car. Please God, let tink reopen the door. Please? That's when I thought to talk to Dave. Standing in the rain I yelled through the window, "Davey, get the keys from Tink. Davey. The keys. Davey, get the keys from Tink!" By this point she had the alarm going and they both just sat in the car laughing at me as the rain poured down off my face, my ears, dripping down my back and soaking me through.

After an eternity I remembered I hadn't fastened Davey into his seat yet. And oh! I have smarties in my pocket. I pulled the box out and started shaking it. "Davey, do you want smarties? Climb into the front seat and let mummy in the car. Climb forward." This went on for ages with Davey alternately holding out his hand for smarties and ignoring me. Tinkie laughing the whole time.

Finally he understood what I was asking and climbed into the front seat. "Good boy! Now unlock the door. That's it, open the door. oh crap. He doesn't know how to open the door." I tried and tried and tried to show him how to open the door but he gave up and just was staring at me through the glass (staring at the smarties, more likely). Hope was fading fast. And that's when I heard another click. As I reeefed the door open I heard a diabolical laugh. Hah hah hah. "Grandma, this one's for you!"

3 comments:

Alvin & Denise Engler said...

ooo... looks cold! hope you still had a good time though. we are still eating apples from willowview. sooo yummy!

that sounds like quite the car situation. something i could TOTALLY see myself doing. one of those times when the kid grabs the keys out of your mouth and intuition says "i'm going to end up locked out". logic then for me kicks in and talks me out of it, telling me how unlikely and unreasonable that is. until there you are... keyless and out in the rain and hearing that lovely locking door sound.

ah well... now its over and you have a really good story that can be repeated over and over and over for years to come :)

Grandma_bel said...

naughty tricky tinkster, heh heh heh.

Jamie said...

That same thing happened to me and Jordan when she was younger! I gave her the keys to shut her up, closed the door without thinking, walked around to my door and she had already locked the car! Fortunately, she pressed the unlock button a second later. I don't let her have the keys in the car now :)