two toddlers and a 911 call

Saturday, early afternoon: Start bath water. Put Harper in tub. Go grab towel in hall right next to bathroom. Landon shuts bathroom door. Landon locks bathroom door. I nicely tell Landon to "turn the nose on the door". He laughs, thinking how fun this is, and refuses to unlock the door. After a minute of kindly coaxing, I start to panic. I pound on the door and yell for him to unlock it. Anthony runs over with his tool box and unscrews the knob. Still, the door won't open. Harper and Landon are crying hysterically while the water rises higher and higher. I yell for Harper to get out of the tub. Landon cries for Harper to get out of the tub. Harper stays in tub, terrified, as water is almost to the top. Anthony is frantically trying to get the door open.

I call 911 while running across the apartment complex to see if maintenance can get the door open before the fire department. Maintenance is unreachable. I hear sirens and pray they'll get through the gate quickly enough. I run back upstairs to our apartment and burst through the front door still on the phone with the dispatcher, apartment management trailing behind me. I turn the hall corner, Anthony is holding Harper tightly in the hallway amid shards of shattered door wood and scattered tools. Landon and Harper are both crying. I am too, but these are tears of pure relief.

Now we're off to go do something fun with our precious babes and forget about what happened. But not before we head to Home Depot and get a lockless doorknob.