Officially Our New Home

We made it to Windhoek and got introduced to our new home. It has a strange layout and will take some time to get used to where everything is. It is also SO much larger than our place in Tokyo! We have a kitchen large enough to eat in, a spacious living room/dining room, a den/computer room, a play room, a screened in porch, laundry room, three bathrooms, a water closet (toilet/sink only), good sized master bedroom, and four more bedrooms. Now three of these bedrooms are on the small size, but I think we can manage. [Symbol] We also have tons of storage space which is always good. The garage is detached. Not sure if that is a pro or a con. It isn’t like we get a lot of bad weather here, but it means further to carry groceries and things.

Mini Crisis Resolved

Our first night in Windhoek we had our first mini-crisis. Justin was happy to explore our spacious new house. He wanted to experience everything. Unfortunately, that also meant locking himself in the bathroom. The bathroom has one of the European style skeleton keys. He was able to twist it to lock it, but not to unlock it. I heard him shouting, and discovered his situation was probably the only one of the day that truly was shout worthy. We have other similar locks in the house, so no problem, right? Since Justin couldn’t unlock the door on his own, we had him take out the key so we could try other keys. Rob even tried unscrewing the door plate where the handle and lock go. No success. The door meets the floor quite tightly, and no key was going to be passed through that way. What should we do?

I asked Justin to read me what it said on his key so I could match up the other keys in the house. The keys are a snug fit and it isn’t easy to just go through them quickly. Justin read me the letters on his key.

“S-O-L-I-D,” came his cute little voice.

Of course that would be the side he would read. All the keys have that on them. He was able to turn the key over and find what we actually needed to know. No other key was coded the same way though.

Rob went to check out the windows on the bathroom while I continued to talk with Justin and keep him calm. I could see through the keyhole that he was playing with the toilet paper. I don’t like him to unroll it or make little TP balls, but when he is locked in the bathroom it is probably not the time to enforce proper TP use. Rob was able to compare the bathroom window to other windows of the house and give Justin directions on how to open the bathroom window. It is a two part process that is not particularly easy. Justin had to raise a handle and unscrew a hinge latch. Standing on the toilet (something else that is generally a no-no) and listening to Daddy’s step by step instructions, Justin was able to get it open and pass the key through. From there it was just a matter of Rob coming back inside and unlocking the door.

I was so proud of Justin. Rob was able to keep him calm so Justin was able to get through the ordeal without becoming upset even though he really wanted to get out. Justin was able to answer our questions and to follow the directions he was given. I think he did better than a lot of kids his age would have done.

The keys are now all removed from the doors. I had planned to do it anyway, but Justin’s little adventure got me to do it a little sooner than I otherwise would have.