We Have A Small Emergency

Those are the words that began a conversation I had with Ted on our cell phones a week or two ago, the first night we were to stay in the house.

Every room in our house has beautiful, tall wooden doors. And they all have the old fashioned locks with these adorable old-fashioned keys for each door.



Charming, no?

Now, on to the story. Ted and Riley have gone to the Tiny Living Facility for one last run of stuff as we moved in (it took more than one van load for all our luggage, kids, and legos when we finally moved out). I'm hang in' out with Mary, Cory and Lucy trying to get beds ready.

Lucy needs to go to the bathroom, but the flushers on European toilets are often out of a small child's reach, as they are in our house, and she asks me to flush when she's done. So, I'm hanging out near the bathroom, waiting on her to finish. Of course, she needs her privacy, so she shuts the door.

And locks it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy for her to unlock it, and we immediately realize we have a small problem. And I can't really help her from the hallway. I went to find another key to try to turn it from the outside, but it's no use. We do have a window in the bathroom, but all the windows in this house have these handy dandy outdoor shades that cover the entire window, and open from the inside with a large rope, and the one in the bathroom is closed for the night. So, we can't get in that way to help her.

Poor child. She's getting more and more distraught, so turning the key is getting more and more impossible for her, and I see no way of getting her out, aside from her turning the key, or us destroying the roulans outside.

I'm sitting outside the door, peering into the keyhole, trying to calm her down and give her encouragement and instructions. It was at about this point that I call Ted and ask him how long before he will get back. He wonders why--because we have a small emergency, I tell him. Then I fill him in on the excitement.

It was shortly after that that I'm able to talk Lucy through how she needs to turn the key (Lucy, turn the key towards the bathtub, and keep turning it...don't stop! Turn it some more, almost there!), and finally I'm able to open the door and pull her into my arms.

And we gathered all the keys from all the doors and Lucy promised not to do that again. I'm guessing it will be an easy promise to keep.



This picture was taken a day or two later, outside the bathroom. She's holding the offending key and wagging her finger back and forth. As cool as it would have been to have pictures from the actual moment, it honestly never crossed my mind then.

We have since learned that not all the keys/locks in the house are interchangeable. So now if we want to open a locked door, we invariably have to try at least a few keys until we get a match. We like to think of it as our own little Amazing Race (cbs tv show) roadblock in life.

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Location:Viale de la Comina,Pordenone,Italy