Panic room

When you combine an old-fashioned door and a non-stop moving preschooler, trouble is bound to happen. Right after D left for his conference, Eena slammed our very old door shut. No problem, right? Except that screaming Baba was on one side with Apa, and I on the other side with Eena. I called D on the cell but to no avail. When I finally got through, I could hear him but he couldn't hear me. I called the landlord, but I had trouble reaching him. After trying everything (including a butter knife and credit card) for 30 minutes, Apa remembered that another door was similar. I was to pull the latch to the side rather than forward. Voila, it worked. During that frantic 30 minutes, Eena and Baba both passed out.

If only that was the end of the door story...

Hours later, Eena and Baba were playing in the room. D left for a minute. The next thing we know is that the girls are trapped on one side and all the adults on the other. We each tried to explain to Eena how to open the lock (now that we understand), but she couldn't do it. Instead, she cried. D's idea was to scale the wall from one window to the next (about three stories high). At first, I told him 'no way.' Then he convinced me that it was the only way since even our landlord wasn't entirely sure what to do. We tied "Boy Scout" knots, using two bed sheets and a belt. Apa and I held on to D as he scaled the building. It took less than 10 seconds for him to reach the girls and open the door.

I'm happy everyone is safe. And, yes, we taught Eena how to unlock all the doors in the apartment. To be on the safe side, we are propping all the doors open now.

More about our day of sightseeing soon.