Adventures in a Parking Lot

Monday I was at Winco, my favorite grocery store, as usual. Every Monday morning I take the two girls with me. Kara, in a front pack, and Lindsey in the cart. The only way I get her to stay there is to pack a large bag of snacks, bring her blanket, and a cup of milk. Anyway, we were done with our shopping trip after about 45 minutes, and headed out to the van. It was a little cold, so I quickly opened the van, plopped Lindsey inside with my bag, and took Kara out of the front pack and sat her in her carseat. Then I loaded up the back with the groceries.

After that was done, I went to my seat to gather up Lindsey and put her in her carseat. Kara was starting to cry a little. I tried the handle- it was locked! So were all the other doors because Lindsey had apparently pushed the lock button while I was loading the groceries into the back of the van! There was my purse, sitting on the driver's seat with keys attached to the handle, and cell phone in the pocket. Lindsey stood on the seat smiling at me. I tried to point to the button and told Lindsey to push it. It is one of those rocking buttons. She did push it- but on the upper side that locks it again. I kept praising her and telling her to push the button- hoping that she would accidentally hit the other side to unlock the door. Then I tried another tactic- pulling the manual unlock. I was pointing to it through the window, but all Lindsey would do it poke the window where my finger was pointing. No luck. Then Lindsey decided to ignore me and try to put a CD into the tape player. She did this for a few minutes, glancing at me now and then.
I moved to the other side of the van- the passenger side had less buttons. Again I tried telling her to push the button. By this time, I heard a laugh. A fellow shopper had pity on me and let me use her phone to call Larry. I told him to come quickly because Kara was still crying and I was afraid I would soon have to call 911 or something. Finally, Lindsey stopped playing with the CD and tried pulling the manual lock. It worked! Yay! I was in! I quickly called Larry and told him not to come. Lindsey was oblivious that anything had been out-of-the-ordinary. Lesson learned on my part- never leave the keys with a 2 year old!