My Smart Little Hero

I know I just did a post about my big brother being the "hero of the day" in Las Vegas, but Ellie won that title yesterday.

After school got out, I ran over to her daycare to grab her and head back to my school. I had to attend an IEP meeting for a student in my class and then cleaned up my classroom before heading for home. I opened up Ellie's door while she wandered on the sidewalk, threw in my laptop, purse, and keys, and then got her into her car seat. After shutting her door, I walked around to my door and was ready to head home. As I pulled the handle, a feeling of complete stupidity and embarrassment filled me. I guess when I tossed my keys onto the driver's seat, I accidentally pushed the lock button! I tried every door thinking maybe I had only pushed it once and the hatch might still be unlocked. No luck, I was locked out and my two year old was locked in. No windows were cracked, she was belted in tight, and Weston was at least an hour away. I called him anyway, asking if he had any suggestions and to tell him to come save us. While talking to him, I decided I would try to get Ellie to get out of her seat and reach the keys to unlock the doors. She loves getting into the driver's seat, so it was certainly a great motivator that the keys were up there.

Ellie has a bad habit of undoing her top buckle (across her chest) while we are driving. She can do it quite easily and in a few seconds we were working on the next step. Calling through the window, I told her to try to get her bottom buckle undone. She has never been strong enough and yesterday was no exception. I am grateful for that because otherwise she'd be running around the back seat each day. After many attempts, she finally reached over and tried to open her door. LIGHT BULB! I didn't even think about having her unlock her door so I could get in. It's a good thing we sit her next to a door and not in the very middle. After explaining to her over and over that there was a 'button' on top of the handle that she needed to pull to unlock it, she finally got it! I opened the door and kissed her, got the keys from the drivers seat, buckled her back up, and called Daddy so he wouldn't have to come way out to my school.

The whole way home I told her she was the hero of the day. She looked all shy and told me "Thanks" and also said she was a hero like Spiderman. I then told her she was such a smart girl and did a good job listening and doing what mommy said. Again, she said "Thanks". I feel like a complete dork, but I'm glad our little girl was smart enough to save me from my stupidity.

*Hero photos provided by "Uncle Cramin"