Locked Out

Let me set the scene for you from this afternoon: Cooper and I had just arrived home from a fun Target outing, where we actually had to wait out a huge thunderstorm that passed by. Stuck in Target during a storm?! No problem...but it will cost you. Coop now has a new Toy Story dinosaur that roars as you squeeze it, a few new water toys, and maybe a few things jumped in the cart for me, too. Anyway, we got home and I unlocked our back door, put Coop and my purse down inside and turned around to head back for the bags. I always leave the back door open so Coop can go in and out, essentially following me, as I quickly unload the car. But, as I'm heading back to the door with my arms full of bags and diaper boxes, I see that the back door is closed. "Oh, Coop must have closed it," I think. Well, I quickly discover as I'm turning the knob that Coop not only closed the back door, but also locked it.
So there I was, standing in the drizzly rain holding several Target bags looking through the glass panes at my son who is grinning from ear to ear. He isn't grinning because he knows he locked me out; he's grinning because he was having fun waving to me on the other side of the door.

My first instinct was to ask him to unlock the door...
Me: "Coop, see how Mommy is turning the knob. Can you turn the knob like Mommy?"
Coop: He just touches the knob.
Me: "Coop, can you unlock the door for Mommy, please?"
Coop: Grabs my car keys and touches them to the knob and then looks at me like, why aren't you opening the door yet?
Clearly...that got me nowhere.

Panic set in initially, but I kept telling myself to stay calm. LUCKILY my phone was with me, not locked inside with my purse. I instantly called Philip and he confirmed that we didn't have a spare key around, so Philip dashed to his car and headed home.

My goal was to keep Coop as close to the door as possible so that he didn't get into trouble, and I wanted to make sure to keep an eye on him. Thank goodness we have glass panes on our back door! At first Coop was really confused and kept saying "side ('outside' in Coop speak) side Mama side Mama side." I knew he was wondering why Mommy got to be outside and he didn't. It would be at least 30 minutes until Philip got home, so I started racking my brain for how to entertain a 1.5 year old through a door. We sang, we danced, we stomped our feet, we sang some more, we jumped, we blew kisses, we did fishy faces...anything I could think of to keep him engaged and close.

Each time Coop started to walk away from the door, I would bang loudly or clap my hands to get his attention. A couple of times I even said, "Coop, Daddy is home!" because I knew he would run to the door for that. I felt bad tricking him, but hey, it got him back in my eyesight.

At one point, Coop started picking up Drake's food and giving Drake one piece at a time, but then Coop turned to me and started putting the dog food in his mouth. The more I said no and tried to discourage it, the more he put in his mouth. Now I was officially panicking because I didn't want him to choke. I quickly decided he needed to learn how to spit or I was going to put my foot through the window.

Me: "Coop, can you spit like Mommy? Watch Mommy spit." (A couple of sentences I never imagined myself saying.)
Coop: smiling with a huge mouthful of dog food pieces
Me: "Watch Mommy. Can you spit like Mommy? Do this...can you do that like Mommy?"

And then it worked! Coop started spitting out all of the dog food! Never mind it was all over the floor, the rug, the windows, his clothes, and face. Dog food panic over.

Just when I was running out of entertainment ideas, the gate opens and Philip pulls into the driveway! Phew!

All in all, Coop did great. He got a little fussy a couple of times, but I think it was more out of frustration as opposed to fear. It was a long 45 minutes, but I learned my lessons: spare keys are a must and a new roll of paper towels has endless entertaining possibilities.