This is the story of all stories so far in our history of raising kids. It even beats the upstairs flood from last year (though in terms of dollars the flood was more expensive).
One normal night this summer, we had one of the cousins over to spend the night. All 5 of the kids were playing hide and seek. For some reason kids love to play hide and seek in our house. I was so happy that they were all playing together so nicely, instead of each one of my 4 fighting for their cousin's attention. It was all great until someone called out to me, "Mom, So-n-so (to protect the innocent, or not so innocent) is stuck in the washing machine!" "Oh, great!" I'm thinking. So I go in there thinking I'm going to have to maneuver her out and then I can quickly get back to cooking dinner.
So I push, and I pull, and we squeeze. She is stuck. I mean s-t-u-c-k, stuck! I quickly realize she can definitely not get out on her own and I definitely cannot get her out either. Within 2 minutes Mike pulls up from work. "Hallelujah!" I think. He's going to be annoyed, probably even really mad, but he will have the strength to get her out and then we can go on with our night.
Nope. She had climbed into our top loader and wedged herself down into a sort of squatting position with the agitator going straight up the middle. We could not maneuver her body in any sort of way to get her back up. Her legs were somewhat pinned in a certain position and the lip that curled up and in at the top of the drum would not let her back move much either.
At this point we realize our washing machine is about to die an unpleasant death. Mike gets out his tools and starts trying to disassemble (and kind of rip apart) the top of the machine. That takes a while but eventually we get it off. It does not change the fact that she is stuck in the drum. He then decides to start seeing if we can get one of the sides off. Perhaps if we can get the drum out of there we can maneuver her. This is getting difficult and painful for her so we turn the washing machine on its side and comfort her by putting a pillow under. We cover her face with a towel because there was a bit of debris.
Also in the meantime I am trying to keep her from panicking and reassuring her that she will be fine and that one way or another we are getting her out. Mike had a bit of a blowup, which is kind of understandable, and then once he saw too that we needed to stay calm and keep her calm, we just became focused on the task at hand. At the same time I had sent all the kids upstairs and told them to just be totally quiet and watch a movie.
After much effort and damage to the washing machine, including now taking off the bottom to see if we could get the agitator out of the washing machine, we concluded it was not possible. Time to call reinforcement.
9-1-1.
Within 10 minutes the fire department had arrived, because we definitely did not have the tools to get her out of this. If I remember correctly it was a Thursday night. Apparently all the first responders in the county must not have had enough to do because about 10 people of various roles showed up. They tried all the things we did trying to work her out. Then it was time to get the tools. While the other kids ate dinner, they were working with some very large and loud tools that eventually sawed through the drum. Remember we had to be careful not to hurt her inside! After finally cutting long ways down the drum, they went to the truck for the Jaws of Life to pry it open. Are you kidding me? Jaws of Life, people! But as soon as they pried it open she came right out. Bless her heart.
The rescue workers were probably there at least 45 minutes. She was in that thing a long time. I can't imagine how her legs and back must have felt!
Here is the mutilated washing machine after it was all said and done. Once she was out the firemen were taking photos of it on their phones. I can only imagine what they were doing with those photos. Sending them to all their firemen buddies I imagine! Crazy.
They were all amazed at how difficult it was to get her out and also at how tall she was for her age. I think it was the county deputy or someone that told me that when they got the call that they were thinking how silly this was and that this was going to be a piece of cake. But they were wrong! I told her if it hadn't been impossible that my husband definitely could have gotten her out. He's very strong, good with tools, and determined at any task. Nope.
So there you have it! The washing machine incident that will go down in infamy in our family. I'm just glad that's all it was and that there was no injury other than some bruising and sore muscles. She was completely embarrassed though or I would have taken a photo of her face. That's ok - when she's older we can give up her identity! Perfect story for her rehearsal dinner I'd say!
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