Noah Locks Himself in his Room

As you know, a couple days ago we converted Noah's bed into a toddler bed.  Everything had been going so well....until this morning.

Noah did fine in terms of sleeping.  He got up around 6:30AM.  He usually talks tand plays for 10-15 minutes before we go in and get him.  So, I went to get him this morning around 6:45.  As I was reaching for the handle, I started saying "Good morning big bo...."

And then I realized there was a problem.  The door was locked.  Awesome.  We had talked about putting the lock on the outside.  Our reasoning had nothing to do with him possibly locking himself in.  We never even considered that.  Peggy thought he might be able to get the door open if we didn't lock it.  I didn't think it was possible, so I didn't mess with it.  We were each right (or wrong depending on how you look at it).  He didn't get the door open, but did lock it.

No problem, right?  The lock is one of those where you have to stick a straight key into a little hole in the middle.  We didn't install these locks, and of course there are no keys anywhere to be found.  Never fear, daddy's here!  Well, maybe....

I went down to my workshop and got a wide assortment of skinny straight things I could push in there: wire, ice pick, leads on a volt meter, etc.  I thought I was pretty creative in a short period of time.

Luckily, Noah was still happy and having a great time on the other side of the door.  So, I started pushing these things in the door.  Usually there is a little lever that the key hits to unlock it.  No such luck this time.  Argh.  I tried for a few minutes, all the while Noah was talking and having a great time.  I knew that wouldn't last long though.

So, now what to do....I couldn't exactly tell him "Noah, unlock the door."  A one year old would have no idea.

So I took another look at the door handle.  The screws to take it apart were on the outside of the door (facing me).  It makes no sense (but neither does not having the unlock lever inside the hole).  The screws should always be put on the side with the lock.  Luckily for me, they weren't.  This wouldn't be the first stupid thing the previous homeowners did on this house.  It's just more to add to the list....

This meant another trip to the basement to get a screwdriver.  By this point, Noah was screaming.  He had enough.  I ran down and then up two flights and started unscrewing the handle.  He was mad.  I go the handle apart, but the other side got stuck.  That took a couple minutes to release.  By then Noah could hear me very clearly and couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him out.

Now I had the handles off, but the lock was still engaged.  I couldn't seem to get it unlatched.  I seriously considered just breaking the door down, because I didn't know if I could release it.  Then I found a tiny little pin that was keeping it from releasing.  Took me another couple of minutes to get that taken care of, and finally I got the door open.  Noah was very happy, but probably very confused as well.

I will be moving the lock over today :-)