"Does anyone see Mommy's keys?"
"No." "I don't!"
"Well. Let's go out to the car and see if Mommy left them there. Surely, Mommy didn't leave them there."
"What? Why wouldn't you leave them there?"
"Because that would mean I locked them in the car and that would be bad. Then Daddy would have to leave work and go home for the spare key and drive all the way to bring it to us...
There are the keys."
Locked in the car.
Spencer: "Mom, the top window is open; we can climb in there."
Sure enough. The sunroof was open.
"Spence? Can you climb in there and open the car?"
"Yes!"
He got one foot on the front wheel and one knee on the hood and he froze. And, I mean, froze. I was behind him trying to help him up and he almost knocked me over coming back down off that car.
"Come on, Spence, you can do it! I won't let you fall."
One more attempt. One more "flight response."
It is moments like this that convince me this cautious boy is an old soul. I mean, what seven-year-old doesn't dream of the day that he is given permission to climb up the car and through the sunroof?
Mine. That's which one.
I looked at Lulu. I considered that for about half a millisecond before concluding that that would just compound the problem. I was pretty sure that she wouldn't know how to unlock the doors; and then the keys and my daughter would be locked in the car. And, as my sister pointed out, it probably would have ended much worse than that. She probably would have started the car and driven off yelling, "See ya, suckas!"
So. That left me.
As quickly as I could, I put a foot on the front wheel, a knee on the hood, and tried to get my foot up to the roof so I could completely bypass the windshield (because that's all I needed - to go through the windshield). This pretty much resulted in me doing the splits over the windshield of the car. I hoisted myself up. Then, holding the edge of the sunroof, I swung my feet under me and into the opening so I could go in feet first (because that's also all I needed - my feet kicking out the top of my sunroof while I gracelessly flopped into my car).
But, then I was in. I got the keys. I opened the driver's-side door. And, the car alarm went off.
Did I mention that all of this happened in front of the kids' school? At pickup.
I'm waiting to hear the word around school that the new family is a bunch of car-climbing hillbillies.
