I left the boys in the house for a short outing to get the oil changed in my car. When I stopped at the store to buy apples on my way home, I got a call on my cell phone. It was my neighbor, whom I don't know very well. He said, "Your kids are yelling out the window. They say they are locked in a bedroom." This was more than a little embarrassing, so I very quickly explained to him that I had turned the door knob of that bedroom door around so that when I give my 3 year old a time out, he can't get out. I thanked him and quickly called another neighbor and close friend and asked her to dash over to the house and free the boys, which she did.
When I returned home, shortly thereafter, I asked the boys how they knew my cell phone number to give it to the neighbor. They explained that 7 year old Bob knew it. Dwight said that Bob doesn't know how to go through caller i.d. or the phone's saved numbers, so he'd memorized it. It's a good thing he did because otherwise they might have been left in there until I got home. Dwight was in a bit of a panic. He admitted that he had freaked out while they were locked in the room. He even did some damage to the door, trying to break it down.
As I suspected, 3 year old Harold had turned the lock and then one of the other boys had closed the door, not knowing it was locked. Since Harold is now sleeping in the main bedroom with the other boys, we've turned his old room into the "man cave" and all of their Lego creations are on display in that room. The boys spend quite a bit of time in there.
I have now taped up the locks on ALL of the doors in our house.
I was definitely thankful that nothing dramatic happened while they were in there. A few hours later, I was even more grateful for the timing since at 1:51 p.m. we experienced a 5.9 magnitude earthquake!
I heard and felt the rumbling and quickly realized what was happening. All four boys came running up the stairs asking what was happening, was it an earthquake? I confirmed that it was and calmly but quickly shuffled them out the door.
They were all shaken up (pun intended) especially Bob and Dwight. Dwight wanted to know what in the world was going on today. Was the world going to end?
We spent a good amount of time talking about what an earthquake is and why we don't need to worry now and then they went back downstairs to play. Bob and Dwight came upstairs to check in, periodically, asking questions to get reassurance that all was well.
Dwight accompanied me when I went down the street to pick up dinner. Bob called my cell phone to tell me he had a bad taste in his mouth and he couldn't get rid of it. He said he'd had it since the earthquake. I asked him what it tasted like and he said, simply, "nervousness."
Dwight knew that I'd bought Bob's Halloween costume a few weeks ago, when he'd told me how much he wanted to be Voldemort, from Harry Potter. He is currently reading book #4 and is a big fan of the series. Dwight suggested that we give Bob the costume early, as a show of appreciation for remaining calm and saving the day when they were locked in the room.
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