Locked Out! (...or proof that my daughter has a heart of gold)

About a week and a half ago I packed up the girls and took a quick road trip to Austin to see our dear friends, The Bighams. The whole ride there, Red could not stop talking about seeing 'kinley, and Makinley must have been just as excited b/c when we pulled into the driveway, she & Laura were already waiting on the steps outside. I didn't bring my camera, but Laura sent the few pics she snapped.

Enjoying a snack

My girl

Scott holding Noelle. They are expecting their second in June...I think he looks pretty excited about holding another baby!

The day was going well (aside from a brief stop at our old house where I shed a few tears of nostalgia), with the girls squealing and playing while Laura & I tried to catch up as quickly as possible b/c we knew that 24 hours just wasn't going to be enough time. But then...

We all went outside in the backyard to play and were having a great time when Red decided she wanted to go back in. Which was fine until I heard the 'click'. The 'click' that meant my 2 year old had locked herself inside leaving, Laura, 'kinley, myself, and Noelle outside with no key and no way to get inside.
I convinced her to unlock the door, but since there were two locks on the door, she unlocked one just as she locked the other. And b/c the blinds were drawn, she couldn't see us and she started to panic. And once she started to panic, it was all over and she wouldn't listen to my instructions anymore. I could hear her crying and calling for 'Mommy' and there was nothing I could do...I felt so unbelievably helpless.
This went on for awhile until Laura made the good suggestion that if we could get Red to the front door, she would sort of be able to see us through the wavy glass and perhaps that would calm her down enough to unlock the front door.
So we managed to yell and ring the doorbell enough to get Red to go through the house to the front door, where she did indeed calm down enough to want to open the door. But, alas, she was too short to reach the lock!!!
So we started to try and guide her to get a stool to stand on. We told her it was in the bathroom...sadly, the stool was in the downstairs bathroom & she thought we meant one of the bathrooms upstairs, so I watched her trudge up the stairs, wander between the bathrooms before coming back downstairs empty-handed. She came to the door, I kneeled down, and we pressed our faces and hands to the glass like we were visiting in prison. Funny now, but heartbreaking at the time. And then I learned how Delilah handles a crisis: she pretends it isn't happening. She had been crying on & off this whole time, but after the stool thing didn't pan out, she decided she was done. So I watched her go back into the playroom & start playing like nothing was wrong. She walked out of my view towards the kitchen & came back in view with a sleeve of crackers. She walked out of my view towards the dress-up trunk & came back in plastic heels. And just continued on as though she always plays alone at Makinley's house.
I managed to get her to come back to the door one more time and yelled for her to get one of the small play chairs and drag it over so she could stand on that & reach the lock. But she was past the point of no return. I promised her candy, cookies, suckers, play-doh, anything her heart desired if she would just drag a chair over. Nothing worked. And the tears started again. And I was about 60 seconds from breaking Laura's window. And then I had an idea. I told Delilah that Makinley was cold and needed to come inside.
Red stopped her tears long enough to repeat, " 'kinley is cold, Mommy?" I said yes and then watched my brave little girl straighten her shoulders, take a deep breath as if to say "I can do this", and she promptly dragged a chair to the door, stood on it, and unlocked the door in about 30 seconds.
So helping her friend was more motivating to Delilah than candy or toys or anything else...how sweet is that?

If only I would have thought of it an hour earlier...