My Little Hellian

Why do I have a picture of a policeman on this post? Well let me tell you about my little Hellian child...Yes, it's sad that one post later, I'm calling my possible "potty-training prodigy" child a little hellian, but today she was.

I was busy doing something and Sydnee was whining at my feet, so I usually give her crackers or the phone to play with to buy me a couple extra minutes to get something done, and this time I gave her crackers. She wasn't happy with that so she took the phone off the table and played with that instead.

Cameron and I joke about her calling 911 by accident and luckily it's never happened... until today! I heard the operator on the speaker phone saying, "911 what is your emergency?" and I started screaming, "Hang up the phone now!!!" which I'm sure did not sound too good on the other end of the phone to a 911 operator! So Hallie grabs the phone and hangs up without saying anything to her, immediately making the situation worse I'm sure. After she did that, I realized I probably should have talked to the operator and explained the phone call was a mistake but instead, I panicked and didn't want to waste the operator's time when I'm sure a real emergency was happening somewhere else.

So I called 911 back and explained it was an accident and not to send any police. She had me verify my address and name and said, "I'll let the police know it was an accident." A moment later, a police man pulls in my driveway... "Oh great!" I thought. So I grabbed both kids and opened our front door so he could see we were all fine.

Policeman: Is everything okay here?
Me: Yes, I'm sorry, my daughter dialed 911 by accident! We're all fine.
(Awkward pause as he peers into my house and looks around.)
Policeman: Which daughter dialed 911? The little one?
Me: Yes, she did. If you need to come in and make sure everything is okay, you can!
Policeman: Well, your daughter doesn't look like she's in danger. You sure everything is okay?
Me: Yes! You can come in and look if you need to...
(Another awkward pause as he evaluates my tone of voice, body language and the situation to make sure I'm telling the truth.)
Policeman: No, that's fine. You're house looks clean and put together (it really wasn't, I had dirty dishes on the table, spilled milk and cereal still there from this morning, and Sydnee's dirty diaper was in the hallway as her onesie flap stuck out the back of her pants.. in my mind things weren't clean and put together!) and everyone looks happy, so it's okay.
(I shut the door and the policeman drove off slowly.)

How embarrassing!! After that I shut the door and just glared at Sydnee as she smiled back at me as if she knew exactly how angry and embarrassed I was... I was a little relieved that none of my neighbors seemed to notice the cop car in my driveway, until I got a phone call from my neighbor Michelle...

Michelle: Shannon! Are you home? Do you know there's a policeman at your house? Is everything okay?
Me: Yes, I'm home, (you did call my home phone, ha ha) everything's fine. Sydnee dialed 911 by accident...
(there's hysterical laughter on the other end of the phone)
Michelle: We always joke about one of our kids doing that but they never have, and now I know someone who's kids have!!! (more laughing)

So, thank you Michelle for the best neighborhood watching ever and yes, you can all say you now know someone who's child dialed 911 by accident, and yes, they really do send a swat car to check things out!? What a day!