Winter Fest

I really wish I was a better author, because this story could use a creative writer that is better with words that myself.  But, we'll just have to let the facts speak for themselves, and hopefully you'll have a laugh (at our expense)!

Yesterday was Winter Fest up at Baptist Lake, and Harold and Kara invited us to their cottage to join in the fun.  After an unusually mild winter here so far, we have finally gotten some winter weather and we were excited to have a day of fun up at the lake.  It was a chilly 5° when we arrived, but most everyone got busy playing ice hockey on the lake and stayed plenty warm.  After lunch Mike, myself, our boys, and Alyssa went for a walk across the lake to Turtle Cove (a small area on the lake where in the summer there is a lot of time spent fishing, turtle hunting, and kayaking).  We had a nice walk there, despite Mike having to calm my nerves at one point where the ice was a little slushy right on top.  We were out in Turtle Cove for a few minutes when Jackson said he had to go potty.  When you have a three-year-old that's only a few weeks into staying dry consistently, you don't mess around!  Being a boy mom, I'm generally in favor of the kids using the great outdoors when it's possible, but it just wouldn't work well in this situation.  So, we started heading back.  The wind was against us now, and made it a little more challenging.  Mike had Jackson on his back most of the way, and at some point he started jogging with him.  I think that was just because Mike wanted to get some exercise in because he has missed a few days this week due to snow plowing.  It must not have been for the bathroom need because once they arrived back at the cottage, Mike forgot that Jackson needed to go, and when I returned about 5 minutes later Jackson told me he had to go.  Of course it fell on me to take him in because Mike said, "You do so much better with that!"  Mm-hmm.  I was about to play hockey, but I figured I'd just take him in a minute and then come back out (although, "quick" is not in Jackson's vocabulary when you're trying to get him to do something).  I took him in the house, we got his snow gear off, and headed to the bathroom.  And, here's where things take an interesting turn!

I brought Jackson over to the bathroom, he went in, and I shut the door partway and was standing in the hallway giving him some privacy.  He said, "I want to lock the door!" I told him "no" and even for a split-second thought he wouldn't actually be able to lock it.  (It's an old-style lock that you slide across into a small hole in the trim.) Next thing you know, I hear the lock slide shut.  My first thought was, "Well, if he can shut the lock, he can open it.  No worries."  Well, a couple minutes later I realized it wasn't going to be quite that simple.  I went through many explanations of, "You know that thing you slid across to lock the door?  Slide it the other way!"  Nope.  I was not making any headway.  Kara and Vonda were the only other ones in the cottage at the time, they gave it a shot and had no luck either.  I could see there was really nothing we could do from our side of the door to access the lock - hinges on the inside, and the way the handle and lock are, there's nothing we could do.  So, unless we could get him to figure it out, we'd be busting in the door at some point.  After about 15-20 minutes I went and got Mike.  I was hoping he could explain things differently or something to get through to Jackson.

Here's another interesting twist!  I summoned Mike out of his hockey game, and when I told him Jackson locked himself in the bathroom, he said he had showed Jackson how to do the lock that morning!  Me, "Are you serious?!?!"  Mike said Jackson had asked about it when they were in there earlier, and so he showed him how it worked.  (As observant as Jackson is, and he really has a good memory for many things, apparently he forgot the part about UNlocking...)  So began another hour of trying to solve this without breaking in the door.  Note: if Jackson had been upset and scared we certainly would have broken in much sooner.  But because he was calm, we were calm, and that gave us time to try and resolve this situation without doing any damage.  At some point everyone else came in from playing hockey, and so now we really had a crowd.  Various people tried to get through to Jackson, and there were some valiant efforts.  Will had the idea to draw a picture of the door showing him what to look for and slide it to him underneath, and I thought that actually had a chance of working.  No luck.  I really, really wish I had a recording of the whole thing - Jackson's response to questions and instructions in his cute little, chipper voice were cracking me up.  There were just a couple times he said, "I want to get out!", but he never got upset; I think he was enjoying the time to explore the bathroom, and I'm pretty sure he was liking all the attention.  Actually, our biggest challenge was how distracted he was.  We couldn't get him to focus on what we wanted him to do!  Here's an example conversation once we removed the door handle to at least see in a little bit through the small hole, and see if we could accomplish anything with the screwdriver:
Harold: "Hey, Jackson!  I can see you, can you see me?"  Jackson comes and looks through the hole.
Jackson: "Uncle Harold, I can see your eye, can you see my eye?"
Harold: "Yeah, I can.  Now look above my eye, do you see the lock?"
Jackson: "What color is your eye?"
Harold: "Blue.  Now, can you look up above my eye at the lock?"
Jackson: "Blue?  What color is my eye?"

There were several conversations similar to that.  Or, we'd be giving him instructions and he'd be answering like he was paying attention, "Yup!", and then we'd see that he was busy playing with the soap or going through one of the drawers.  When we could get him to actually look at the door, for some reason he'd get focused on the handle, not the lock up above it. 
"Jackson, we need you to focus.  Are you looking at the door?"
"Yup!"
"Okay, do you see the handle?"
"Yup!"
"Good.  Look above the handle.  Do you see the thing you slid shut when you locked the door?"
"This?" And he'd jiggle the handle.
"Nope. Look ABOVE the handle, buddy. Do you see it?"
"Yup!"
"Slide it back towards the wall." 
"Like this?" And he'd jiggle the handle again.

We went round and round so many times.  And then there was yet another interesting turn!  He said he had to poop.  Well, he was in the right place...  On the one hand, I was thrilled because we've really been struggling with him in this area.  He's been doing great at staying dry (even overnight) for a while now, but #2 has been very frustrating.  So, the fact he was in the bathroom and said he had to go was great, but on the other hand, I know he can't wipe good on his own.  We took a break from the rescue operation for him to use the facilities.  Mike and I peeked through the hole to make sure he was getting on the toilet okay, and it was hilarious!  He had taken everything from the waist down off, and was climbing up on the toilet with his bare little buns sticking out.  He did his business, I think tried to wipe?, and got down and got dressed again.  We decided to just try a little longer before breaking in the door. 

After a total of probably about 1 hour and 20 minutes or so, Mike pushed in the door.  There is some fixing to be done on the trim, but I suppose it could be worse.  After I cleaned up Jackson better from his bathroom usage, Mike spent some time looking at the lock with him - showing him how to do it, and seeing if he could do it himself.  Mike determined it must have been pure "luck" that Jackson got it locked in the first place, and he wouldn't have gotten it unlocked on his own - the door has to be positioned just right, and he could barely reach it.  So, now he's been strongly instructed not to lock the door!! 

It's funny how drained I felt afterwards.  Even though I wasn't worried about him because I knew he was fine and that we'd be able to get him out, it was still a relief when it was finally over and I felt wiped out!  I didn't really have any more desire to go out and play hockey. 

I'm pretty sure this story is going to be talked about for years.  Every summer when we're spending time at the cottage.  Jackson's never going to live it down!

Year in Review

2018. Another full year for our family.  Full of blessings, full of challenges, just full of life, and I am so thankful.  Life certainly hasn't been perfect, but doesn't that make the good times that much sweeter? 

I'm going to attempt doing a brief review of our year.  No details, just bullet points to make sure I get through it, otherwise it'll never happen!

January: Caleb got braces.  Mike and I had an overnight without kids thanks to my brother and sister-in-law.  Jose's mom cooked dinner for us at his house (amazing).  Near the end of the month Mike went to Guyana on a missions trip with my parent's, brother, nephew, and another gentleman.

February: Mike returned from Guyana (yay!).  Logan cooked a meal for us with Grandma.  I went to Ohio for a few days - met up with college friends for dinner in Columbus, went to chapel with my nieces and their boyfriends, was able to have supper with my sister and her family as they were in town for the weekend, went to a special brunch for Amy as she was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at Cedarville.  Took the boys for a fun evening at the Holland Aquatic Center.  Caleb had his ears checked out due to failing the hearing test at school.

March:  Took the boys to Rebounderz (we had told them at Christmas that we would take them sometime and we finally got to go!).  Went over to the Padding's for an evening.  Levi had a friend over to play one weekend, and then went to a friend birthday party the next.  I had a few activities at school I tried to help out with.

April:  We survived Spring Break (which is quite a feat in Michigan).  My guys made me proud at our church's Pinewood Derby.

May:  Levi had his 6th birthday.  I had an outpatient surgery (ablation).  I worked a garage sale along with some other ladies from church - I look forward to it every year!  Kicked off the summer with a cottage day over the Memorial Day weekend.  Last day of school for the summer!  (I was actually looking forward to it due to the difficulty of getting Jackson to cooperate with the school schedule.)

June:  Caleb and Logan got to go to a friend's birthday party at a park.  We had a couple cottage Saturday's.  Caleb and Logan went to Drama Camp at school.  I was asked to coach the high school volleyball team at Libertas.  Mike went wake boarding at Action Water Sports for his birthday.  We had a busy week at our church's VBS - the older three boys attended, I worked, and so Jackson was in the nursery (he was ready to be done by the end of the week!).  Also, in the afternoons of that week, Caleb and Levi attended our school's soccer camp.  I attended Libertas' Volleyball Camp.  A few of us ran the Zeeland Zoom.  Tom & Tera came into town and we had time to hang out with them!

July:  Plenty of time at the cottage between the 4th of July and a "family weekend" with Tom & Tera around.  And, around this time I was starting to get obsessed with trying to prepare for the volleyball season.  Levi went to a friend's birthday party.  Caleb, Logan, and Levi went to Chess Camp at school.  I had my 20 year high school reunion!  We had different playdates with friends.  Kept busy with the garden.  My sister and her family came into town at the end of the month, so we had lots of family time then. 

August:  More cottage time, woo-hoo!  We made headway with Logan and then Caleb both trying to waterski.  Caleb, Logan, and Levi went to VBS at Jamestown - we took Jack (neighbor friend) most of the days.  Volleyball practices started.  Went to the Hudsonville Fair.  Took the volleyball girls for a beach day, and that was a fun time to get to know them better. 

September:  School started!  I took Grace Schreur's senior photos.  Things were crazy, but mostly manageable with volleyball practice and games.  And, of course, Mike was busy at work during this whole time, but he handles it like a champ.  Took the volleyball girls to a GVSU game and back to Sage's house for pizza and a movie, so fun.  I think it was this month that I booked our tickets for Kenya in March 2019!

October:  Finished up with volleyball.  The packing shed finished with celery the day after.  And, Mike and I both took a deep breath.  :)  We had our annual skeet shooting party with Harold and Kara (& kids), and Joe.  Had an end of the season party with the volleyball team - crazy girls.  Bought a 'new' piano!  Caleb, Logan, and Levi started with piano lessons.  I helped out at Grandparent's Day and Jackson did great.  We worked at our church's CandyLand event. 

November:  Jackson turned 3.  The kids applied for their passports, and I renewed mine.  We had Parent-Teacher Conferences at school - good reports, phew!  Fall Sports Awards Night.  Mike and I had a weekend away - we stayed at the cottage, kids were at Eric and Lea Anne's.  I started back up with church volleyball.  Thanksgiving Dinner with the Krol/VanBeek's.  Bought our 'new' car (Ford Expedition), Christmas activities with the Steenwyk's.  We had a snow day!  Mike flew to Texas with his boss to visit the Cantu's before Rolando passed.  Caleb and Logan turned 9. 

December:  Attended a school fundraising auction, which is always a fun time, and I donated a cheesecake.  Church Christmas Program - Jackson did his little dance with his cowboy boots on...  We worked at our church's Live Nativity for two nights.  Mike and I and the older three went to see Fiddler on the Roof (Jackson went to Padding's) - so good!  Mike had his first ever eye exam and got new glasses.  I agreed to be the Nursery Co-Chair at our church.  We had Tiemeyer, Steenwyk, and Krol/VanBeek Christmas parties.  For our S & K Farm Christmas Dinner we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - farmer's in the big city at a fancy restaurant!  We had a relaxing Christmas Day.  Mike and I had a date night out at Carraba's thanks to a gift card from my volleyball girls. 

There!  That's a very brief overview of some of our activities from the year.  There is so much more to it than this, but hopefully this will be enough to jog my memory when I read this someday.  :) 

The main thing we are looking forward to in 2019 is our trip to Kenya.  I can't think of much else beyond that right now!