"911, what's your emergency?"

So we've had an exciting past week. Thankfully nothing life threatening! But exciting nonetheless! In my life, I've never before called 911 and this week, I've called them twice. Twice in 5 days! Oy! 
Friday afternoon, I was folding the clothes in my bedroom when I hear the kids shriek at the sound of the alarm going off. I came into the living room thinking it was the smoke detector but saw that it was the carbon monoxide detector instead. Our CO2 detector shows amount of CO2 in the air and when I took it off the wall to reset it and see what was going on...the first thing I saw was, "call 911" on the side of it. It didn't seem too high so I opened the windows and hoped for the best. It continued to scream its alarm so finally, since there are three children and a pregnant mama in the house, I decided to call 911. They patched me through to the fire department right away and within 10 seconds of hanging up with the FDNY, I saw the siren lights outside and the firemen coming through the front door. Amazing how fast they were. There was a strong enough detection of CO2 in the apartment that they stayed, opened all the windows and checked the entire apartment building. They were here for maybe 1/2 hour - 45 minutes and the kids were both nervous and super excited the entire time. They were great and I was thankful they were thorough and helpful! 
If you follow me on instagram (you really should as I'm much better at updating there these days than I am here sometimes!!) you probably saw this picture:

This was taken from the boys' room. Lucas couldn't get enough of the fire trucks so we went to wave good bye as they drove off.

Yesterday, I found myself in the same predicament..."do I call 911 or not?" 

(you can see where we tried unsuccessfully to open the door)

Instead of just going to the bathroom like he was supposed to, Nicholas and Sophia started playing with the doors. I was on the phone and didn't see exactly what happened, but somehow, Nicholas managed to lock himself in the bathroom. We live in a renovated prewar (before 1920) building and most of the old fixtures are still in place, including the old locks and door knobs. While locking the bathroom door is fairly easy, it's a bit trickier to move the lock back to the unlocked setting as it kind of catches and requires more force. Try as I might, I  couldn't get Nicholas to just turn the lock again and open the door. Thankfully he was calm and even at one point prayed "Jesus, please don't give up on me. Help me be a strong boy and open this door" It was sweet and adorable and most of the time he was trapped, he was calm like that. After calling the apartment superintendent and hearing that he wasn't home, I called the building management company to see if they could send anyone. The tools I had and was trying to use were not budging the door at all.  Finally, the super's wife came up and on his instructions, tried to help me break the lock. He told her he could fix that later, but was concerned that Nicholas was still locked inside. Even that didn't work.
She looked at me. "I think you're going to have to call 911" Seriously, again?
I wrestled with it for a few more minutes and knew I had to call so I did...and by that point, I was glad I did as Nicholas was starting to worry and panic a bit that he wasn't going to get out!
Again, they were here very quickly, along with the NYPD, and after struggling a bit themselves (seriously stubborn door!) got him out. Nicholas had made a bit of a toilet paper mess in the bathroom, but thankfully that was the extent of it. They were very gracious and funny and very helpful. 
I'm extremely grateful for the FDNY, but..here's hoping I don't have to call them again any time soon! :)
Have you ever had to call 911 for something like this? I'd love to hear about it! 

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