Father of the Year

Caroline's training for the triathlon Saturday mornings, so I have the task of getting the boys ready in the morning and taking them to Grant's soccer game. This morning I was all set. Boys were fed and dressed and we were headed out the door. I put Andrew into his car seat in my car, and he was not happy about it, so I jingled my car keys to distract him and handed them to him. Then I went around to the other side of the car to put Grant in.

Unfortunately, the car door wouldn't open. I tried the front passenger's side, and it was also locked. I reached into my pocket to get the key fob to unlock it again, and then it hit me. My keys were in the car with the baby. Baby Andrew had hit the LOCK button on the key fob in the 5 seconds it took me to walk around the car. I had no way to get back into the car. The house was locked, and Caroline was on a bike someplace and not due back to the house for a couple of hours.

Then Andrew hit the LOCK button again. I could hear the car re-locking itself. I peeked in and smiled at him, and he smiles back, obviously thrilled with his ability to make the locking sound by pushing the button. He hit it again, and I tried to open the car door, which of course was still locked. He must have hit LOCK about 15 times, but never UNLOCK. I really didn't know what to do to get him out of there. I think my options are waiting around until Caroline comes home, breaking a window, or calling the fire department. I also futilely call Caroline 10 times, but I know there's no way she's going to answer. The neighbor is out front to take his son to his soccer game, and Grant gleefully reports our dilemma to them. Luckily, I think only their 4-year-old is paying attention.

Andrew gets bored with hitting the LOCK button, and resorts to putting the key fob in his mouth. He's still very happy inside the car. A couple of minutes pass without him miraculously hitting the UNLOCK button with his gums. Then he puts the car keys down. They are sitting in the car seat next to him. Pretty much no chance he is going to somehow unlock the car now.

I think for a couple of more minutes, wondering if I would have been better off paying for On*Star service after all, and whether they would be willing or able to remotely unlock the car for me even though I don't subscribe to the service. About now I start to explain to Grant that we are not going to be able to make it to his soccer game today.

Then I hear a glorious beeping sound and the tail lights flash. That means the car has just been unlocked. I sprint to the door to open it before Andrew has a chance to hit the LOCK button again, and it opens. The whole episode all of the sudden seems very funny, and I am amazed at my luck that my 10-month-old was able to pick up the car keys and push the right button. Time to find a new toy to distract the baby rather than my car keys!