The Great Lockout of 2009

I've heard the horror stories, but I never thought it would actually happen to me. Today, shortly after 6:00 p.m., it did. Here's how it went down:

This time of year, with the weather being absolutely perfect, and the boys being out of school and us having no formal plans, we leave the two doors to the deck unlocked and just wander in and out them throughout the day. So, shortly after 6:00, I wandered out one of the doors to glance over the deck rail toward the tree where we have some baby robins living. Read (this) to find out about our baby bird adventure earlier in the day. Brandon followed me out, and a couple of minutes later Hayden was at my side fishing over the deck rail. He's practicing for our big June fishing trip in WV.

As he was fishing he was also snickering off and on. Finally, I began laughing too and said, "what are you giggling about?"

He said, "I locked the door." (more snickering)

I instantly stopped laughing and hoping I didn't hear him correctly said, "you what?"

"I locked the door," he said, clearly pleased with himself. (snickering some more)

I quickly checked the door, and sure enough it was locked. My heart started to pound a little but calmed when I glanced at the other door. Certainly he didn't lock both of them -- afterall he only came out one. So I headed toward the other door.

"I locked that one too," he said. (snickering some more)

"What?" I said, now starting to lose my temper a smidgen as Hayden continued to snicker in the background. When I confirmed that the door was indeed locked, I said, "stop laughing, Hayden, this isn't funny. What are we supposed to do now? How are we supposed to get back in?"

Hayden had what he thought was the perfect solution. "Daddy will let us in."

I had just talked to Daddy before we got locked out. He was still at work. When he left he would be making a couple of stops on the way home. It would be over an hour before Daddy got home. My oven was preheating -- at least it would be nice and warm when we got back in.

I said, "I have no idea when Daddy will be here. What if he doesn't get here until 10:00?" I knew it wouldn't be that late, but my anger had made me a little irrational.

Hayden promptly began exploring. "I know," he said, "we'll go in through the basement."

"It's locked," I said.

A couple of minutes later he hollered up and said, "come on -- we can go through the gate."

"To where?" I said. "The front door is locked."

Finally he returned, gave me hug, apologized, and sat down in the swing. I tried a couple of ways to pick the lock but was unsuccessful considering I could only find cardboard to work with. At some point, I looked at Hayden who was only wearing his Batman Underoos which were filthy and wrinkled because he had pulled them out of the dirty clothes hamper a hour earlier when he and Brandon were playing Batman. Then I glanced at Brandon who was wearing his Scooby Doo jammies with a hole in the knee (they had been role playing Batman meets Scooby Doo), and the entire situation struck me as hilarious, and I began laughing so hard I couldn't stop.

Hayden wasn't sure if I was seriously laughing or just going a bit looney so he nervously grinned and said, "are you okay?"

"Yes," I said, "It's just kind of hilarious that we're locked out."He began laughing too, as I sat down beside him and put my arm around him. "So what should we do until Daddy gets here?"

We decided to water the garden and the flowers in the front. As soon as I had soaked it all, before I could get to the faucet to turn off the water, the sky opened up. and huge raindrops poured from the sky confining Brandon, Hayden, and me back under the protection of our deck and making the watering task we had just spent 30 minutes on pointless.

As we sat swinging, Brandon now shirtless because he had somehow soaked himself under the dripping faucet, I suddenly was grateful for this unexpected memory God had somehow created for us today. We now quietly sat in the cool breeze watching the pouring rain. Hayden rested his head on my right shoulder and Brandon on the left. And with my arms stretched naturally around them, I thought to myself, there is no other place on earth I would rather be than right here in this peaceful moment with these two perfect little boys.

Sometimes God has to slow me down so I can appreciate the simple moments of parenthood. And I realized, it was God who locked those doors tonight, not Hayden. And when I still didn't slow down, it was God who sent that rain sending us scurrying back to the confines of the deck.

As I sat there savoring the quiet moment in the calm of the pouring rain, Brandon urgently said, "mom, I gotta go pee."

I said, "Can you hold it? It's raining, and we can't get inside yet."

He said, "No, but I can just go off the deck."

As a piece of me briefly considered that suggestion, my thoughts moved to trying to figure out which bush I would shove him behind so my neighbors wouldn't see the rednecks letting their kid pee in the bushes in the pouring rain. But just then, Michael walked out the door and rescued us.