I Also Left My Brain In the Car

This post has no pictures. Sorry to disappoint, but at the end of it you will understand why, and probably be grateful.

We've been having a great week. Sean's night shifts have been going shockingly well, my BEST FRIEND LAURA showed up on my doorstep Thursday morning after covertly flying across the country and swearing all of my other friends to secrecy. Generally, life's been awesome. So naturally, this morning was necessary to balance out the ease with which we've been getting by.

I decided I'd take Aiden to the local museum where they have a huge Lionel train exhibit set up. So I said goodnight (or goodmorning?) to Sean who'd just gotten home from work, buckled Aidy into the car seat and we headed out.

At the very bottom of the driveway I heard a "THUNK" and since I could see the recycling bin but not the garbage one, I realized I must have whacked it with the ginormus SUV. I was half in the road, half in the driveway at this point and tried to pull forward but the combination of leftover ice and the steep grade of our drive meant that not even the 4WD could get that sucker moving forward.

I knew it'd only take a second to move the bin so I turned off the car, tossed the keys on the seat and hopped out. As I righted the garbage bin I heard a soft thump and hurried over to see that the angle of the car had caused the heavy door to just barely shut. I yanked on the handle to no avail: even though I could wedge my fingers between the door and the body of the car the latch had engaged and somehow the door was locked. All of them were locked. The trunk was even locked.

So my mothering instincts kicked in and I totally panicked. My car was halfway in the road, with my baby strapped in. All I could think of was some car racing down the road smashing into it. Once I reminded myself that I lived on a quiet stretch of clear suburban road and it was Saturday morning, I calmed down.

I decided to run inside and find the spare keys. Except my house keys were on the seat of my locked car. Right. Aha! Sean was home! I ran up to the house and rang the bell. I banged on the door. Nothing. Sean, you see, enters a coma-like state upon falling asleep and it was going to take more noise to wake him up. I knew that if I could just get the dog to bark that he'd wake up (we've discovered that when Bo does bark it's shrill enough to pierce your eardrums). I pounded on the door and rang the bell for a good ten minutes before an angry, bleary-eyed Sean came down (and Bo never even barked. What the heck).

And where were his set of keys? IN THE CAR. So, since my brain was addled with panic and he was running on ten minutes of sleep, we decided that the only thing to do would be to break into the car and rescue our baby. Wire coat hanger in hand, we headed down the driveway.

However, growing up in a sleepy neighborhood in a peaceful town where we had loving parents and enriching extra curricular activities kept us from learning the secrets of grand theft auto and we totally failed at unlocking the automotive prison. So, logically, we resorted to blaming each other. We had a refreshing five minute spat in the sub-freezing winter air about who was really at fault and who was currently suffering more. Once that was out of our system we decided Aiden was probably suffering the most.

I peered through the tinted windows of the SUV and attempted to communicate with Aiden, who I assumed was equally frozen from the temperature and sheer terror. I was wrong. He casually waved at me and smiled slyly. I asked him to try and undo the top of his carseat (which he KNOWS how to do). He just shook his head and smiled. Sean asked. Aiden rolled his eyes, stretched, and crossed his legs. I KID YOU NOT. I pleaded and begged and Aiden would wave or make goofy faces.

Finally we made the emergency call to AAA. We weren't actually members so they mercifully charged us DOUBLE and proceeded to wax poetic about the benefits of upgrading our four second old plan to platinum level, despite the fact that Sean had just informed them we had a toddler stuck in a car sitting halfway in the road in frigid temperatures. But please, do go on about your superb towing services.

Twenty minutes later, while my toes slowly lost feeling and Sean lost more and more sleep, we received an automated phonecall telling us not to give up hope, the lock smith would be there soon.

In relief I rested my forehead against the car window. Then Sean pointed out the "Emergency Roadside Assistence" phone number in the corner of that same window. The one that would've gotten our car unlocked for free since the car is still under warranty. WHOOPS.

Finally, an hour after the ordeal began, Aiden was sprung free. Sean returned to bed. All I wanted to do was take a hot bath and apologize to Aiden forty thousand times. My plans would have to wait as the first thing he said to me was "Ugh. Come on Mommy. Choo choo show!". So off we went.