My family and i are extremely social people and enjoy spending time with friends as often as possible. It was this past Sunday that we were out to lunch with some of these awesome friends, that this event took place. We were at a local pizza place that has an arcade room off to the side. Our routine at this specific restaurant is after we eat, the adults talk while the kids go play in the arcade room. After about 10 minutes of the kids being in the arcade room, Oran, my oldest son, runs out to me with panic in his eyes..."Mom, Beck is stuck in the machine!" Beck is 4 1/2 years old, and quite petite for his age. I run back not panicking too much, knowing he likes to get under and behind things looking for money (being a natural little scavenger). What i saw was the last thing i expected. Beck had crawled into an actual game. This is the kind that has the claw grabbing (or not grabbing) the toy and dropping the toy down a shoot that goes to a flapping door where one would push in the door to get the prize! This door was about a foot wide and maybe 18 inches tall. Beck had CLIMBED into it in the pursuit of getting himself a green ball and his brother a blue ball. But instead of absolute joy of having all of these toys at his fingertips, he was crying in terror at being stuck inside of this machine. We (my friend Autum) opened the little flap door to see what we could work with, it didn't look too hopeful. Beck, in panic mode was trying to squeeze out of it any way he could. As i tried calming him down and keeping eye contact with him, Autum directed him in how to get out. We didn't think it was working but he was not stopping. He was so scared. By that point the room had filled up with every child there...and most of the parents who had been told of the event but didn't believe the kids. I had my oldest, D'Arcy, look for a manager to possibly try to open this machine, but before she even came back, Beck had once again shocked us and managed to maneuver his little body back out. He came out unhurt, with minor bruising to his joints and major issues with separation for about 10 minutes. And then he was off to the arcade room again, with a little bit more supervision this time. :) And NO, we did not get any pictures... :(
