I read a Time Magazine article about a toddler in China playing with his mom’s phone. As we all know, type in the wrong passcode too many times and our iPhone locks up. What I did not know is that the time compounds with repeated attempts to unlock. This industrious two year old locked his mom out of her phone for 47 years.

“Ms. Lu waited for two months to see if the situation would improve — but the phone remained locked. ‘I couldn’t really wait for 47 years and tell my grandchild it was your father’s mistake.’”

Kids have a way of locking us out of normal life. On the way to preschool this last week I did not realize Ezekiel had his lunch box until I heard it unzip. We were on the highway and I couldn’t easily pull over to stop him. One by one he went through the items until he found the ranch. He popped off the lid and began to drink.

So my walk into the office (his preschool is at Chandler) began with wet wipe clean up and lunch reassembly.

Everything parents do is marked by children. My clothes have spots, my eyes have bags, my brain is packed with both Batman and Missouri history facts. I find myself repeating phrases that irritated me growing up and I am regularly celebrating minivans (“those brilliant sliding doors save so many door dings!”).

Parenting life can drive me crazy. It leaves me winded and behind. But I also laugh out loud and get to play video games. Someone asks me to play catch and thinks my made up bedtimes stories are sensational. Plus I am wrapped up in more real hugs than any normal person deserves. Embraced in Love I never want to unlock … then my phone buzzes … if only my kids had learned to lock me out for the next 47 years.