Chapter 4: How a two-year-old can scare the crap out of her parents (and hosts!)

Last we left off, Chris was battling his cold...

We had arranged with friends of ours (M&J) to come down Labor Day day and stay overnight with their daughter, Kaila. They arrived around 11 am Monday morning...just in time to see the Dover Township Emergency Response Team (ERT) unit at our house. Not to worry - this was a social visit! The sergeant is a client/friend of Hubby's and he brought the ERT unit over with his liutenant so Chris could take a tour of it (pics to be posted in the next chapter since my MIL is still holding them for randsom!).

Anyways, we had a very nice time with M&J down for the day - unfortunately, we missed boardwalking with them and our other friends who live in the area because Chris decided to take a 3+ hour nap. Oh well...wasn't like he WOULDN'T get to the boardwalk, right?

Monday night was a trip trying to get the kids to go to sleep - they just fed off each other, so we let them play until about 10 pm (which Chris never gets to do!).

Tuesday ended up being rather rainy, so we decided to hit the beach in between showers (pics still held hostage) and when it did rain, stay indoors and play. Chris loved the water - Kaila loved the sand...can you say match made in heaven!

...Then, it was time to pack up and our guests to head home...and here is where the fun begins!

Kaila is a darling little peanut - she is as tiny for her age as Chris is a moose for his. She will be 2 years old in early December, yet she just hit 20 pounds. However, her strong-willed personality (and I mean EXTREMELY stong-willed!) would make you think she was a little brute - not the peanut she really is.

As her parents were gathering up the bags and such, she was "teaching" Chris how to open and close the doors to all of the rooms - except, she wasn't betting on the locks on the doors. Around 6 pm, as she closed the door to the room they stayed in, she flipped the lock and locked herself - and only herself - in the room. She began to scream bloody murder as she realized she couldn't get out of the room - and she was trying!

So, as she screamed from the inside, M, my FIL and Hubby were taking the door handle apart. I was trying to keep J calm, because she was just crying as much as her daughter was. Finally, Hubby got the door handle off on the outside, and pushed the doorhandle off to the inside - but, the lock still wouldn't unlock. Kaila, being the smart cookie, picked up the doorhandle and kept trying to push it back in to try to open the door. Finally, after about a 20 minutes, Hubby got the door opened, and Kaila came rushing out!

Kaila was fine....and much calmer than her mom. But, everyone recovered well...and, after they left, we taped the door locks with duct tape so Chris wouldn't get the same bright idea.

Amazingly, my MIL slept through the entire incident! Not sure how that happened - but, thank goodness she did! Otherwise, I have a feeling we would have been replacing the window screens out of our security deposit!