So I have been postponing this post for a while, but Jesse says it must go up so we can remember! I don't know if I am just embarrassed that it happened to us or shocked, anyway here we go...

Mexico has been awesome and for every new place, there are things to get used to. Cleaning is a little different here (we squeegee instead of mop our floors or the fact that I scrub each individual piece of clothing instead of letting a machine do it for me) and the food, the language, etc.

Well the kids and I had just dropped Dad off at school/work and Quinn was acting REALLY tired. She just wanted to be held and rocked...it was only 9 am (she usually naps around 11), but man she was tired and fell asleep in my arms.

I started our normal Tuesday ritual of soaking our clothes then started to "squeegee" our floor. When I got to the laundry Bennett was running this way and that and I told him he either had to stay outside with me or go upstairs until the floor dried. He choose to stay with me.

I got through all of the clothes but about 4 items which were soaking inside. I threw the clothes in our scrub sink and all I heard was a CRASH. All I could do was cringe. I knew it was the door. Bennett was being so helpful and shut the door for mommy! "NOOOOOO" was all I could say! Then I just laughed and thought, no way! This cannot be happening. Bennett had no idea what happened or why mommy was acting funny until I explained, "Bennett we are now locked outside." It was now about 9:30-10 o'clock.

Funny thing about the doors in Mexico is that most don't have handles, the ones that do would be doors like the bathroom door or the bedroom door, but never gates/garages and outside doors. So THEY LOCK AUTOMATICALLY WHEN CLOSED!! WHAT ?!?! And the only way to get in: to have the keys (which I didn't) and for someone to open the latch on the inside. Plus, it was so early that I hadn't opened our windows yet so the two windows facing what I like to call "the square" were locked!

HOLY COW?!? What could I do?!? So, I finished the remaining laundry and looked about our prison. All I had were wet clothes, a clothes line, a bottle cap, broom, dust pan, and a squeegee. What would MacGyver do?

More about our prison...it is literally an enclosed cement square (with no ceiling) with two laundry lines, our gas tanks, and a scrub sink. The shortest wall is just under 10 feet (I measured), the wall parallel to our apartment is about 12 feet with broken shards of glass cemented in it (to keep people from getting in...or out) and the next wall is about 14 feet. I noticed that our front window was open, if I could just scale over the wall, drop down into the backyard and we would be alright. I climbed on our scrub sink and climbed the wall. But it was in vain! I don't know what I was thinking but we have an apartment right next to ours and their scrub sink was on the same wall as ours...and there was no way I could climb the outer wall without a little boost.

We were stuck until someone let us back in. I'll spare you all of the details, but we tried to find things to do...scrubbed our prison, played in the water, killed some bugs, watch the sun pass us (when we started there wasn't any shade, when we left...all shade), sang songs, marched in the square. We drew letters and animals on the cement with water. We were blessed with water to keep cool, but it isn't drinkable.

Bennett was such a trooper the whole time. I tried to explain (without blaming) our situation and he played as much as he could. He never napped, but would lie on me and ask him to hold him over and over again. I hadn't snuggled this much with him since he was a newborn.

Bennett would say the funniest things like "I'm sorry someone closed the door and you forgot to open a window" or when we thought our landlord was there he would shout "Victor come help me before our Cheerios get soggy" and "Victor your mommy says to come here right now and open this door." He would holler for Jesse and ask him to open the door or just shout his name. He would say to me "Mom let's go inside and play the iPad" or "let's go inside and eat."

I think around 4 he got really hungry (no way to know the time there...I felt like the man in that time sensitive study in the movie IQ where he is shouting and acting crazy because he didn't know the time), but he never whined or cried, he really had high spirits. When I would try to rest and put my head down, he would say "don't be sad" or would ask me what was wrong and I would tell him I was bored and he would look and me with a confused face and ask "Why?" I would laugh and say "it's because I am stuck in a cement box and have been for hours."

Bennett thought it was so cool to go potty outside...

Then the church bells rang...like they do every day and we shouted for JOY!! Daddy would be home in about 45 minutes! HOORAY! We marched around for a long while shouting for joy. When we heard outdoor open, it was like Christmas morning. I told Bennett that Daddy was home and he says "let's hide." Right, because that is what I want to do, spend more time in "the square" until he finds us...but we compromised and hid and jumped out at daddy when he walked through the door! It is always great when daddy comes home, but for some reason, today it was even better :)

Dad opened the door and had the NERVE to be laughing and said "I hope you weren't out there for too long." It was now 6 o'clock. Bennett ran past dad to the food asking, can I have this, can I have that...I told him he could have anything he wanted. I too ran past Dad because there is something missing from this experience...Quinn.

I rushed upstairs to my little girl (who had been crying) and just held her. Poor girl, she was stuck in her own prison all day. We were blessed though, she slept a long time (the day before and after she took three hour naps each). She was so happy to see us! She was all smiles when we held her and VERY thirsty, but a happy girl despite her imprisonment. And another blessing was that her diaper was barely damp (she averages three poopy diapers a DAY)! I didn't let her out of my sight all night and just held her. My sweetheart.

So we were in "the square" for over 7 hours. Jesse decided that we deserved a treat (and if it involved cookies and ice cream I was in) and took us to MacDonald's to eat and let the kids run a muck. We DEVOURED our food and it turned out to be an awesome night.

I did learn somethings: cement is never comfortable, my kids are TROOPERS and that I would HATE prison.

I do feel that we were blest even in this situation: Quinn was safe and had a comfortable place to sleep (and she wasn't stuck outside in the sun), and didn't have a poopy diaper, that Bennett was so optimistic the whole time, he would tell me "I love you SOOO much" over and over again. Another blessing was that I had been sick the previous days from food poisoning and I didn't feel sick until the following day. We weren't in want of water or food until the end and really (I know this sounds strange but) it could have been worse.

I did worry about Quinn not wanting to go to bed that night and I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to, but SUPER Bennett stayed and went to bed too so she wasn't alone and really she was just fine. I waited outside their door to see if I needed to rush in there to "save" her, but she fussed once and I heard her amazing brother immediately say, "It's okay, It's okay. I'm here." I know it's cheesy, but it really doesn't get better than that!!