Unlocking the Secret to a Great Mother's Day

I spent my Mother's Day (at least the early morning hours of it), trying to unlock Noe's bedroom door, with him asleep on the other side.

It all went down last night. DH and I had just spent a really amazing evening at the ballet, and came home to two peacefully sleeping children. I drove the sitter home and went to bed, exhausted and content after a very full Saturday. DH puttered around the house, as he is prone to do late at night. At 1:30am, he woke me out of my happy sleep.

DH: "Jen, I went to check on the boys and when I closed Noe's door, it locked."

Me: "Oh....that's a problem."

We just recently moved into our townhouse. I hadn't realized that the boys' bedroom doors could lock. After a couple of seconds to absorb DH's words, I jumped out of bed and found our tool box. Then, we locked our own bedroom door and realized quickly that Noe wasn't going to be able to figure out how to unlock it on his own. Noe's room is on the second floor and we had no idea where we were going to find a long ladder in the middle of the night to reach his window. Nor were we too keen on calling the fire department. At least not yet. So we spent the next two hours trying to find the right tool that would unlock the door without waking the child from his sleep....a situation in which true chaos would ensue.

A few coat hangers, bobbi pins and prayers later....we unlocked the door. And I fell back asleep until ten o'clock the next morning(thank you very much DH!)

Incidently, I learned a few lessons from our "close call" last night:

1. If DH and I work together, we can accomplish ANYTHING for our children. Yeah, maybe a locksmith or a fireman could have done it faster, but we got the job done. This was a great lesson for us to learn, especially as we help Noe overcome his autism.

2. I CAN be a calm presence in a potentially dangerous situation. Usually DH is the calmest one in the room and I am hysterical. Last night, he panicked and I reasoned out the situation and ultimately came up with the winning MacGyveresque tool that unlocked the door. Maybe it was because I was half-asleep, but we'll say otherwise, ok?

3. Sometimes I want to kill my boys, but more often I want to save them. During those two frightful hours, I was entirely focused...with an intensity that I've rarely known....on getting that door unlocked so it would no longer separate me from my son.

4. Mothers don't hold the monopoly on loving their kids. When DH woke me up....I'll never forget the tone and panic in his voice. I thought for sure he was going to tell me something really horrific, like one of them wasn't breathing. I have an equally ferocious papa bear to my mama bear.

5. It is a good idea to have keys to all of the doors with locks in your house.

Not bad lessons to learn on Mother's Day, don't you think?