Elliot Locked In The Car

Yesterday morning started out just like every other morning. I fed the boys breakfast and then dressed them to get them ready to send Zach to school. Was out of the house by 9.15am as needed to get Zach to school by 9.30 for his Chinese Speech and Drama class. On the way to the car, Zach puked and dirtied his clothes, shoes and the stroller. Though this was not the first time something like this had happenned, I still dreaded it. Got to the car and managed to change Zach and cleared up the mess with El still in the sling cos he wanted to be carried. Phew, finally on way to school but knew we were going to be late. Decided not to get stressed up and will just let Zach miss his class if need to. By time we got to school, class was over but was glad that we made it to school anyways. Got Zach settled in school and then rushed to head back home for Elliot to take his morning nap.

Usually, I would turn the car engine on before putting El in his car seat but this morning, as El was struggling to get out of the sling, I decided to put him in his car seat first. So did just that and then proceeded to take the driver seat. "Oh no" I could not open the door on the driver side. Only then did I realise that El had my car keys and he had just locked himself in the car by pressing the "lock" button on the key. At that moment, I really panicked and wondered how I could have been so silly as to have allowed him to play with the car keys and not taken it back from him. I looked at my baby sitting in his car seat smiling at me and I really didn't know what to do then. My mobile phone was in the car. El was still holding on to the car key and I tried talking and gesturing to him to press the "unlock" button on the key. Initially his finger was still over the "unlock" button but it moved over to the "lock" button and somehow instead of unlocking the door, he ended up closing the side mirrors of the car instead by double pressing on the "lock" button. I thought of going back to Zach's school to make a call to Flem but didn't dare to leave Elliot alone. Finally saw 2 men and waved for help. One of them tried to help by waving his car keys at El, hoping for El to press the button but instead El dropped the key he was holding and wanted to get the guys keys instead. We spent the next few minutes trying to get El to pick up the car key which he had dropped onto the car seat just next to his right leg. Poor El was just staring at us and smiling at us, probably thinking we were entertaining him. He is after all only a 14 month old baby.

All I could do at that moment was to pray that nothing will happen to El and that he would somehow pick up the key and unlock the door. More of the church staff came over to my car when they saw what was happening and tried to help. One of Zach's classmate, Raphaelle's father, Charlie, saw me and also came over to help. He even brought down his daughter's car seat from the car to try to demonstrate to El to pick up the car key from his seat. After many fruitless attempts and El also started to fuss and cry with all this commotion, we decided we needed to get a locksmith. Thankfully Charlie knew a locksmith whom he had used before and managed to get the guy to come over to help asap.

I felt so helpless and it started to drizzle. All I could do was to keep talking to El, played peek-a-boo with him hoping to distract him and also sang to him, making all kinds of funny animal sounds which he loves. Thankfully the locksmith came in less than 10 minutes and unlocked the door almost immediately. I was so relieved when I opened the door and just cuddled my crying baby.

I thank God that El was not hurt in the whole process and it is a real miracle that El did not even try to climb out of his car seat all this time. Believe me, El has always wriggled himself out of the car seat the minute I am out of my seat and it's just amazing how he did not even try that this time. I thank God for His protection upon Elliot. Thank you Jesus for not letting any harm come upon my baby.