Help!

Have you ever been locked up in a room by a two year old? Well, I have. About a month ago. By my own daughter.

I had gone into the bedroom and shut the door in order to reach for my clothes hanging behind. The little imp came along and I guess she couldn't resist the temptation. She's seen us bolt doors so she must've thought, "Now's a good time as any... Daddy's not here, Mummy's on the other side of the door so she can't do anything to me.... 'Less' do it!"

Initially, I wasn't too alarmed. I figured she'd be able to un-bolt the door on her own. But unfortunately, she didn't have the strength for that. She panicked and started crying. I ran out to the verandah and called out to the neighbors but they couldn't hear me. I felt like crying too -- out of frustration because I needed to get to my Italian meeting. I even managed to get her to bring her plastic stool, put it down near the door, stand on it and try to undo the latch, but it didn't help.

So there I was, alternating between standing in the verandah shouting out for help and trying to calm li'l one down and get her to open the door. My frustration soon gave way to anger. I started pounding on the door -- partly because I was so mad and partly because I was hoping the latch would somehow loosen and she'd be able to undo it. No luck. All that banging on the door only frightened her further.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of shouting our immediate neighbor heard me and came out to see what all the noise was about. Fortunately Mario was at the guest house (two buildings away). I explained the situation to the neighbor and asked her to go call Mario.

By the time he opened the front door, li'l one was sobbing hysterically and kept apologizing over and over again. I don't think she's going to fiddle around with any of the bolts any time soon.