Tristan's Taxi Service

a couple of days ago tristan and i were getting ready to go out to the grocery store to buy some milk before josh got home from work. as we were getting into the car, a friend called me on my cell phone. in case you didn't know, it is now illegal in the state of california to drive while talking on a cell phone (unless you have a bluetooth, which i don't have) so i allowed tristan to play around in the car while i chatted with my friend to set up a playdate with our kids. tristan climbed into his favourite place, the driver's seat, and played with the radio dial and turned the wheel and made car noises. he reached for the keys i was holding and i gave them to him because he loves to pretend to put them into the ignition.

as i was saying goodbye to my friend, tristan looked out the back window of the car and yelled "tyyyyyleeeeeerrr!" sure enough, his buddy tyler (only a couple of months younger than he) was coming out of his house across the street along with his parents, keith and kendra. tyler spotted tristan in the car and came running over yelling "triiiissstaaaannn!" it was very cute, and as i chatted with keith and kendra, tyler made a beeline for the passenger seat, climbed in and closed the door behind him. we joked about how they were going to take off for a spin and then i felt slightly lightheaded when i realized that tristan was inside the car holding my keys. a quick peek inside confirmed my fear: tristan had pushed down on the lock button (he likes to help us lock the car sometimes) and there was no way in. at first, we were all quite calm and i was thinking that waiting 30 minutes until josh came home wouldn't be the end of the world. but then kendra started panicking when she realized that tyler was crying hard with his hand near the door. his little thumb got pinched in the door as he closed it and he couldn't get it out!

i don't do well in situations like this. that is one of the reasons why God picked josh to be my husband...he does a great job of calming me down when i start stressing. so of course the first thing i did was call josh up to see when he'd be home. he was still half an hour away and as i was trying to explain to him what was going on (i'm sure my words were all jumbled and made no sense) i was also searching every closet in the house looking for a wire coat hanger. all we had were plastic and wooden ones, but i brought one down anyhow just in case it would come in handy (it didn't). i ran back outside to find kendra doing her best to talk to tristan through the window, asking him to push the lock button up. he was staring blankly at her in between giving tyler (who was full on wailing at this point) looks as if to ask "what the heck is your problem, dude?" i tried to get tristan to push the button up and he smiled at me and happily pushed it down over and over again. it seems we never taught him how to unlock the door and he didn't have a clue that the button went up as well as down. keith, meanwhile had found a wire coathanger and was desperately trying to get it into the sealed windows to free his son. it was no use. the doors were firmly locked, tyler's finger was firmly stuck in the door and tristan kept firmly pressing down on the lock button instead of up.

about 5 minutes had passed at this point and i was near tears. if it had been tristan with his finger stuck in the door, i think i would have lost it by this point, but kendra was holding up pretty well. we discussed our options. calling AAA would work, but it would take time for them to arrive and keith was pretty worried about tyler's thumb losing circulation. calling 911 would also take time and chances were they would just smash one of the windows. we had no options left, so i gave keith the go-ahead. one powerful blow with his elbow smashed the backseat window completely. the door was unlocked, tyler's thumb was let loose and the tears stopped flowing.

the next hour or so was spent vacuuming up tiny bits of glass from every nook and cranny of my car while kendra was in touch with a window repair place. she had held up pretty well while the drama took place, but as soon as she got on the phone with the window place, she lost it and started crying and told the lady the story, so we got a great deal on a new window, which we each paid half for. tyler's thumb is just fine and now my car is all clean inside. on my immediate to do list are 2 things:

1.get 2 more copies of my car key made and

2.teach tristan how to push the lock button up.