Parking Lot Party

My Mac is dead. I didn't know it was possible, but it is. And it's expensive to fix. So I'm stuck with my S-U-P-E-R S-L-O-W iBook until sometime in January. So no photo uploads and no playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook :-(

But that's ok. This story has been on my mind for several months and it needs no photos.

So, way before Christmas shopping began (It must have been late October or early) November, we went to Wal-Mart because they were having a sale on diapers. Off the 4 of us went after dinner one night to take advantage of the deal. We got the diapers (woo hoo, the last box!), looked around for awhile, then went back to the car.

We have the STUPIDEST car alarm. We've wanted to get it shut off since we got the car, um, 2.5 years ago, but just have never got around to it. You see, once you open any door, you have 10 seconds to put the key in the ignition and turn it, or else the alarm will sound. This is fine for someone who has no kids, but when you have two kids to get from stroller to carseat, it is REALLY ANNOYING to have to open the driver door and disarm the alarm first, leaving your kids running around in the parking lot as you do this.

One way around the parking lot chase, is to open Nate's door and shove him in, which gives you 10 seconds to then open the driver door and turn the ignition. Colin usually uses this method, but I find I am not fast enough for it.

Anyways, back to the story. We get back to the car, and Colin unlocked the trunk for the stroller. Then, he chooses the "shove-Nate-in-before-disarming-alarm" method. Obviously it takes more than 10 seconds to put Nate in his seat, so he closes Nate's door letting him climb in his seat, opens the driver door, and puts the keys in the ignition.

Meanwhile, it's my job to put Evan in the other side of the car. The parking stalls at Wal-Mart are not very wide, so sometimes it is a challenge to squeeze the infant carseat in. This time was particularly difficult, as the person beside us parked a foot into our stall! I barely had enough room to squeeze MYSELF between the two cars, let alone the massive carseat, so annoyed, I had to return to the back of the car to tell Colin he'd have to reverse the car in order for me to get Evan in.

Colin went to get into the car, and realized that Nate, who was not strapped into his carseat, had locked himself in the car (note, the keys are in the ignition)!

We tried everything to get him to unlock the doors. We must have looked like idiots. We got him to press the button, but he kept pressing lock. Lock. LOCK! He happily he had free reign of the car, pretending to drive it, turning his CD up, dancing to the music...he really thought we were playing a game.

After about 10 minutes of trying, the lady who parked in our stall came out and saw two quite obviously frazzled parents, with a cold, crying infant, who were trying to coax a singing toddler to open the car doors. She laughed and said, "Oh, that's so funny!".

I lost it. I am usually an even tempered person who avoids conflict at all cost, but this set me over the top. I said something like:

"WHAT exactly is funny about THIS? My kid has locked himself in the car and my baby is cold and hungry, and if it weren't for your horrendous parking job, I would have been able to get my door open before he locked himself in there!!"

She squeezed past me and drove off asap. An offer to help would have been nice.

Luckily, Colin had unlocked the trunk. After 20 minutes of trying, he managed to unhook Nate's carseat by getting in the trunk, shoving his arm between the two seats, and bending his arm in a way that no arm should bend to hit the seatbelt release. Then, he was able to force the back seat down far enough to squish the upper half of his body through far enough to reach the lock. I was almost in tears because I thought Colin was going to get stuck and injured. Then what would I do with a crying baby, split-in-half-husband and locked in toddler?

But we did get in, so I got to phone my mom back who was on her way to my house to get my spare set of car keys and bring them to us. Thank God she has our house key!

We learned a few lessons though.

1. Don't let Nathan be in the car with the key in the ignition. (like, duhh you're saying...but try having our stupid alarm)

2. Take an extra set of keys.

3. Get our alarm disabled.

I'm back

Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive. There are a few reasons I have not blogged in over 3 months. Here's one:

And another:

And another:

But I need to stop making excuses like "I don't have time". Well, that's not really an excuse, it's true. But I don't think there will EVER be enough time so I'll just have to make time. Writing is a creative outlet for me. And besides, with 2 kids, I have so many stories that I may just bust if I don't get them out!

It took so long for me to remember my user name and password that I don't have much time today, but I want to make blogging a weekly thing again, so please check back soon.

Ok, Evan, I'm coming!!!!