Barry and I are taking care of our grandchildren Taylor (10) and Andrew (8) while their Mom and Dad and several friends are in Baltimore participating in all the festivities of the Baltimore Running Festival and running the Baltimore Marathon tomorrow.

Godspeed, guys!

We planned for this months ago, long before my Mom’s surgery date had been set for this past Wednesday.  We didn’t want to change our plans with the kids because we just didn’t want to… and I knew that their enthusiastic company would be, well… enthusiastic company… and Barry is better than anyone to jump in while I’m with my Mom at the hospital.

And enthusiasm about a “secret bathroom” and a little incident is how I’m kept on my toes!

The “secret bathroom” is really a tiny, undiscovered bathroom under the eaves in a little yellow bedroom tucked at the back of our upstairs.  This bedroom is Andrew’s for the weekend.  He’s been in this bedroom hundreds of times… but I’ve always kept the “secret bathroom” door tightly shut for a really, really good reason.

THE LATCH HANDLE IS OLD AND IT GETS STUCK FROM THE INSIDE…

AND the escape route is rather totally UN-adventageous…

(I got stuck in that little bathroom ONCE, and that was a ONCE HOUR too many.)

All of my grandchildren think the door to that bathroom is a door to a closet, and I’ve always kept a heavy little doorstop at the base of the door as an extra discovery prevention.

Last night at bedtime, Andrew discovered the tiny bathroom. It’s not because he moved the heavy doorstop or anything like that.  It’s because Barry and I have our home on the market and we fixed the lock.

I heard Andrew calling to Taylor like he had discovered a door to the land of Narnia…

“TAYLOR!  TAYLOR!  There’s a bathroom in here.  My PRIVATE bathroom!”

They were mesmerized with the discovery of this bathroom with its vintage green toilet and sink, yellow tile and slanted ceiling.  It IS totally cool.  It really IS!

And Andrew wasted no time making it his own, laying claim with his toothbrush.

This morning was a whirlwind of activity… well, mostly Grandpa and me re-living our days of getting kids off to school.

I headed to the kitchen to pack lunches, snacks, milk money and all that.

Grandpa headed out for a Dunkin’ Donut breakfast treat.  (Shhhhh… don’t tell Mom & Dad!)

All was well.

Until I heard banging, banging, banging… not the drop something upstairs bang or a door slam bang.

No.

This was the locked in the “secret bathroom” with the fixed lock bang…

I’ve lived that bang.

I dropped my peanut butter spreader and ran up my back staircase to the door to the land of Narnia…

I was calling, “Andrew, don’t panic.”

I needn’t have.

Andrew was calm, cool, collected.  “I’ll push from this side, Grandma,” he was calling.

“OK, Buddy.  Let’s do it,”  I called back, trying not to recall that LOST HOUR and my mind racing to OH NO THE KIDS WILL BE LATE FOR SCHOOL and all those responsible things.

But as Andrew calmly pushed… and I pulled… the door flew open.

Andrew’s assessment:  “That was easy.”

Oh, man.

Barry was opening the back door by then, I had the lunches, snacks and milk money to wrap up… and my morning already had all the enthusiasm of an entire week!

I loved it.

All’s well that ends well…

Grandpa got the kids to school on time.

And we definitely have to change that latch.  TODAY.