Even Mommys Make Mistakes

Yesterday was quite eventful and incredibly embarrassing for me, but Lucy had a blast, and was calm, cool, and collected the entire time despite my absent-minded mistake.

We were on our way home from Target, and I had just pulled into our parking space right in front of our apartment complex. I set my Blackberry and my keys on the passenger seat, and got out of the car.

Instead of pushing the automatic lock button up to unlock the all the doors, I pushed it down without realizing it.

I locked Lucy, my keys and my phone inside my car.

I waved at Lucy through the window, told her what a silly mommy I was, and that I was going to use the neighbors phone to call someone to get her out of the car. I called my mom and told her to call AAA for me. It would be free for a greasy tow truck driver to come break in to my car for me.

No big deal.

I'm standing on the passenger side of my car talking to Lucy for no more than 6 minutes. I was trying to get her to unbuckle herself, and get up to unlock the door for me, but the bottom buckle on her carseat is childproof. Her little fingers just couldn't get it, but she had fun in the attempt. She unbuckled the top buckles of the five point harness, and tried as hard as she could to reach over to the door lock. She was about three inches off from reaching it. She was really stuck.

Lucy and I were chatting through the glass when an ambulance, sans lights and sirens, pulled up on the street by my house. The EMT got out of the ambulance and strolled over to my car.

Me: "Um, you're not here for us, are you?"
EMT: "Yes, we got a call from dispatch that there was a child stuck in the car."
Me: "Yes, but not really stuck. More like I just locked her in. This is so embarrassing. You really didn't need to come out here."
EMT: "AAA has to call dispatch if there is a child in the car. We always come out if the sun is shining."
Me: "She's doing great. I was just trying to get her to take her seatbelt off, but it's too hard for her." (Lucy smiles and waves at Mr. EMT)

Yes, the sun was shining yesterday, but it was a cool winter 53 degrees Fahrenheit here in California. Lucy was in no danger of overheating. She was happy and excited that an ambulance was there just for her...to my chagrin.

EMT: "She is doing just fine. I'll just wait in the vehicle until Fire gets here."
Me: "What?! You're kidding, right? Why do we need firefighters? This is so incredibly embarrassing. All I wanted was a tow truck"

The EMT guy went back to his ambulance to wait, and 1 minute later a fire engine came pulling up. To add insult to injury, one of the three firefighters was a friend of mine, who knows Lucy pretty well. She was so excited to see her friend, and was smiling and talking to everyone though the car window.

The firefighters quickly broke into my vehicle without breaking any windows, and set Lucy free. They actually timed themselves, trying to beat one of their previous break-in records. They managed to get Lucy out in about two and a half minutes. She had a smile ear to ear.

Her firefighter friend, Josh, scooped her up and took her over to the engine for a quick look around the rig, and gave her an entire stack of Junior Firefighter sticker badges.

She didn't stop talking about it all day, how "Mommy got her stucked in the car and she was rescued by a firetruck."

Now, if you all don't mind, I'll take that Mother Of The Year award. *Taking a bow*

Sorry about the quality of this photo. It was taken by my just-rescued Blackberry!