Hide & Seek
Okay, this picture has nothing to do with my blog, but I thought it was a cool picture of my mutant strawberry!
Ever left a phone message for someone that you wish later you could go back and delete? Well, yesterday afternoon, I had a big scare. I was holding T and all the other kids were playing together—going from the backyard to the living room to their bedrooms—just busy, busy, busy and having a great, happy time together. At one point, M, L, & S come parading past me, calling out for B. It caught my attention because they called for him so many times and he never answered. They didn’t know where he was. I checked the backyard around the side of the house, I checked the garage; I checked all over downstairs.
I sent M and L upstairs to check every room, as I went out the front door. My heart just sank because I saw that the front door was completely unlocked. I remembered locking it when had come in from school, so I figured he was out there. Amazingly I stayed calm, but my heart was racing. I kept calling out to him, and I looked out in the park, and I looked down the street, and I looked in the front yard on the other side of the driveway. The girls came out of the house and said he wasn’t upstairs. I told them to look again and to look in the bedroom closets and everywhere. I ran back inside, put T in the baby swing, and got my phone out of the kitchen. I went back outside and called N while I looked more. I called once and got the voicemail where I left the panicked “CALL ME BACK NOOOOOWWWW!!!!” message. Then I hit redial called right back again. I got him that time. Luckily he was in from the field and at the office, and he immediately left for home.
With no sight of B anywhere outside, I went back inside to look some more. I kept yelling his name over and over and looked behind the couches and under the tables and under beds. I said, “B, if you’re hiding from me, you need to come out right now! We’re not playing a game right now!” Never an answer from him, never a giggle, never anything. My heart was racing, and my mind was racing (Do I call the police? Do I drive around and look for him or do I stay here? Is he lost or does he even realize that he’s gone? Did somebody pick him up? Is he looking for me? Is he crying? Is he scared? Is he playing?). I stayed pretty calm on the outside though… (I didn’t need a nervous breakdown in front of the other kids.)
I went into our bedroom again, looked behind the chair, looked under the bed, looked into the bathroom. I started to leave, and then I turned back to the bathroom and went in further. Well, somehow in the girls’ grand searches, they had skipped our bathroom, and somehow in my quick room surveys, I hadn’t look far enough into the bathroom.
There, sitting on the potty, flopped over, was B—sound asleep. I don’t know how he didn’t hear us yelling and yelling and yelling for him. I called N, told him I’d found him (relieved that I’d found him, but a little embarrassed that I’d found him in such an obvious spot and embarrassed over how I must have sounded in my help-help-I’m-scared message). B obviously never knew what had happened, but I guess he sensed the urgency and nervousness because he was so clingy and needy and cuddly after that.
Okay, so fast forward to this morning. We take M to school and are running a wee bit late… I see Michael and his grandma headed down the street and we’re not even out the door yet (Michael is in M’s class). I send the kids out the door to get into the car, and I pick up my purse and keys, only to knock my drink over and have it spill all over the little desk at the front door. I mop it up with a towel from the bathroom and then run out to the car where the kids are already. We rush to school (as much as you can rush in a school zone). Well, this is a good story but is off the subject, so I won’t go into all that… but that is how the morning started. You get the idea! When we get back home, the kids start playing, picking up where they left off when we went to school. We’d been home all of maybe three minutes—I’m nursing T, and L comes in the back door, telling me something about outside. I notice that it’s awfully quiet. I ask where B and S are. She says they’re not out back. I don’t hear them upstairs. I tell her to go check the front door real quick and see if it’s unlocked. (This comes to mind so quickly because of yesterday’s scare.) She comes back and says yes. So I get up to go out front, telling her to go upstairs and check the rooms, and L says, “Well, I think they might be out in the front yard because the door is cracked.” The door was definitely open, unlocked and ajar, and they were definitely outside… off around the side next to the garage, filling up a toy bucket with rocks.
B and S are becoming quite the little buddies lately… and, boy, do they get into some mischief. After finding them outside, I drag them inside and then just a couple minutes later I hear them upstairs. I’m a little suspicious, so I go up the stairs to look. B has my bottle of water open and has stuck a ballpoint pen in it and is swishing it around. S has my chapstick and has turned it and smashed it all up in the lid.
Never a dull moment around here, that’s for sure.
I sent M and L upstairs to check every room, as I went out the front door. My heart just sank because I saw that the front door was completely unlocked. I remembered locking it when had come in from school, so I figured he was out there. Amazingly I stayed calm, but my heart was racing. I kept calling out to him, and I looked out in the park, and I looked down the street, and I looked in the front yard on the other side of the driveway. The girls came out of the house and said he wasn’t upstairs. I told them to look again and to look in the bedroom closets and everywhere. I ran back inside, put T in the baby swing, and got my phone out of the kitchen. I went back outside and called N while I looked more. I called once and got the voicemail where I left the panicked “CALL ME BACK NOOOOOWWWW!!!!” message. Then I hit redial called right back again. I got him that time. Luckily he was in from the field and at the office, and he immediately left for home.
With no sight of B anywhere outside, I went back inside to look some more. I kept yelling his name over and over and looked behind the couches and under the tables and under beds. I said, “B, if you’re hiding from me, you need to come out right now! We’re not playing a game right now!” Never an answer from him, never a giggle, never anything. My heart was racing, and my mind was racing (Do I call the police? Do I drive around and look for him or do I stay here? Is he lost or does he even realize that he’s gone? Did somebody pick him up? Is he looking for me? Is he crying? Is he scared? Is he playing?). I stayed pretty calm on the outside though… (I didn’t need a nervous breakdown in front of the other kids.)
I went into our bedroom again, looked behind the chair, looked under the bed, looked into the bathroom. I started to leave, and then I turned back to the bathroom and went in further. Well, somehow in the girls’ grand searches, they had skipped our bathroom, and somehow in my quick room surveys, I hadn’t look far enough into the bathroom.
There, sitting on the potty, flopped over, was B—sound asleep. I don’t know how he didn’t hear us yelling and yelling and yelling for him. I called N, told him I’d found him (relieved that I’d found him, but a little embarrassed that I’d found him in such an obvious spot and embarrassed over how I must have sounded in my help-help-I’m-scared message). B obviously never knew what had happened, but I guess he sensed the urgency and nervousness because he was so clingy and needy and cuddly after that.
Okay, so fast forward to this morning. We take M to school and are running a wee bit late… I see Michael and his grandma headed down the street and we’re not even out the door yet (Michael is in M’s class). I send the kids out the door to get into the car, and I pick up my purse and keys, only to knock my drink over and have it spill all over the little desk at the front door. I mop it up with a towel from the bathroom and then run out to the car where the kids are already. We rush to school (as much as you can rush in a school zone). Well, this is a good story but is off the subject, so I won’t go into all that… but that is how the morning started. You get the idea! When we get back home, the kids start playing, picking up where they left off when we went to school. We’d been home all of maybe three minutes—I’m nursing T, and L comes in the back door, telling me something about outside. I notice that it’s awfully quiet. I ask where B and S are. She says they’re not out back. I don’t hear them upstairs. I tell her to go check the front door real quick and see if it’s unlocked. (This comes to mind so quickly because of yesterday’s scare.) She comes back and says yes. So I get up to go out front, telling her to go upstairs and check the rooms, and L says, “Well, I think they might be out in the front yard because the door is cracked.” The door was definitely open, unlocked and ajar, and they were definitely outside… off around the side next to the garage, filling up a toy bucket with rocks.
B and S are becoming quite the little buddies lately… and, boy, do they get into some mischief. After finding them outside, I drag them inside and then just a couple minutes later I hear them upstairs. I’m a little suspicious, so I go up the stairs to look. B has my bottle of water open and has stuck a ballpoint pen in it and is swishing it around. S has my chapstick and has turned it and smashed it all up in the lid.
Never a dull moment around here, that’s for sure.
by LaughterThoughts | 11:09 AM
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