9-1-1

This is a post from Betsy's blog from when she babysat this week:

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i was tending my nephew otie. we went to ikea. i was buying couches for work. so i gave otie the car keys and let him sit in the front seat to distract him while i loaded all the furniture in the back of mom's suburban.he's not even two years old yet, mind you. so i closed the back door and went to grab otie out of the front seat...

and...it was locked. otie had the keys, and my purse, and my cell phone...

he knows what a button is, and he understands "lock" just not "UNlock." so i would point to the buttons and ask him to unlock the door, and he pushed every single one except unlock.

he thought it was a really fun game. he would kiss me through the window and was just beaming with power. then he found my deodorant. he took off the lid and started rubbing it in his armpits over his clothes, but that got boring fast so he decided to rub it on his tongue instead. at this point i was banging on the window telling him "no" and to stop biting into my deodorant. he would just laugh and then get the keys again and dangle them in my face. he was just glowing because of the time he got to spend in the driver's seat, a rare occasion, because he turns neurotic when it's time for the car seat again.

after about ten minutes, i darted into ikea and called 9-1-1 for the first time that wasn't a prank (whoopsie, i had a naughty childhood). i figured if i couldn't get him out, kidnappers couldn't either. i was still scared to leave him nevertheless.

i was pretty calm and it wasn't that scary...until he turned the car on. he is the smartest little thing. he turned the keys and i could hear the car beeping. that's when i started to have a panic attack. he put all his body weight on the shifter, trying to pull it into gear (i am not kidding.) good thing he wasn't quite strong enough and didn't know the angle you had to pull it to actually shift from park.

i had a grocery cart ready to smash the window in to save my little man, but then the firemen pulled up...thanks for letting me borrow your car dad!

after a huge full-size-lights-flashing-fire truck, 6 firemen, a frantic aunt, and a laughing toddler who loved all the attention, we hijacked the car and got the door unlocked and all left the scene alive, and uninjured.

anyone wanna babysit?