"Daddy, I'm Stuck!"

Last night, while I was feeding the baby in my big comfy chair, a little voice calls from the kitchen. The Helper was having dinner at the kitchen table – this can be a 5 minute or 5 hour process. “Daddy, I’m stuck, can you help me?” he calls out. Not being overly concerned, as he often thinks he’s stuck when he’s not, I glance through the dining room to the kitchen to survey the situation. Well he wasn’t cryin’ “wolf” this time. Sure enough, his little arm had gotten wedged between the rungs on the back of the chair. I quickly put the baby down and went to the aid of my trapped cub.

To my surprise, he really was stuck – but good. Trying not to rip off a limb, I rotated his arm, slid it up and down to try and free him. No luck! Being a carpenter in a past life I knew the chair would not get the better of me, it’s wood and I own about twenty different saws. But wait; as much as we might want to, let’s not resort to power tools quite yet. Especially, if after I turned the chair into a pile of sawdust, Mommy came home and presented a simple solution in hindsight. Let’s try to use our heads. If his arm went in it has to come out, right? Right! Well The Helper and I put on our thinking caps and figured out that maybe we could twist the rung to provide enough clearance for the captured appendage. One, two, three and he’s free! “Thanks Dad, you’re the best!” First, Santa on Sunday and now this – TIME magazine was right, I am Person of the Year!

I examined the boy’s arm and found no permanent damage. Now, he was more concerned about eating dinner -- love that 4 year old attention span. I went back to Baby and his only concern – finishing the bottle we started.

Today’s Lesson’s: 1. While a home might be “baby proofed” it can never be 100% “fool” proof. 2. Not every problem requires a reciprocating saw in it’s solution. (Although, I will continue to measure corrective action based on horsepower.)

Thanks for reading!