Sunday, August 10, 2008

The First Time* I Lost My Child

So tonight after dinner, we were writing letters to Matt, like we do after every Sunday night dinner at the moms'. I stepped away from the living room to go to the bathroom and left Stellan playing happily in the living room. When I came back, I was planning on posting the last two entries you may have read on this very blog, but I couldn't find our camera/USB cable. So I scoured our room, looked in all the places it could have been, and then walked into the living room and said, "Has anyone seen the camera cable?" This led to a discussion (when and where did you last have it, could it have fallen out at ____, did you check in the _____, etc.) that lasted several minutes and involved everyone in the living room. Suddenly someone said, "Where's Stellan?"
It was at that moment that we all realized that Stellan wasn't with someone else, since all the adults were all together, and that he was lost (to us). Of course panic set in (at least inside of me), but we all remained calm on the outside. We checked in the living room and the kitchen, we checked in the bedrooms and the bathrooms, we checked out on the deck, but he was nowhere. We made sure the barricade on the stairs down from the deck was in place, and that he wasn't on the stairs. We checked the backyard, and he wasn't there either. Then Kevin yelled from the deck, "I hear him." So we all ran to the deck and saw him down below. He had apparently crawled out the back door, down the steps on the side yard, opened the gate that we had all presumed he couldn't open and then headed to the next door neighbor's front yard, home of the much-coveted tetherball. Yep, happy as a clam, he seemed delighted to see us all gazing at him from up on the deck. So he's fine, and we've all learned a valuable lesson: don't go to the bathroom. Ever.



*but probably not the last

4 comments:

Flem said...

The other tip along these lines is that if you can't find him in a store, don't even try to look, just tell someone who works there. They are way faster and they do that whole "code Adam" thing. Been useful twice for the Fleming Clan since I wasn't in the bathroom either time.

Melissa said...

Oh my goodness talk about a heart attack!!! I'm glad you found him safe and sound and having a good time. I'm sure this gives you practice for all the other times you may lose him. We <3 toddlers!!! ;-)

D said...

What an escape artist! I've lost Kaden too. He ran into a parking lot though which is a lot more dangerous. I wasn't in the bathroom either - just looking the wrong way. Thankfully it turned out fine. IT was terrifying though.

Jess said...

Just wait until he is bigger and can open the front and garage doors, then you'll have a party! I am glad that he still moves pretty slow and you were able to find him, it is pretty terrifying to have him gone for even a second. I am always panicked that someone is sure to kidnap my children because they are so wonderfully beautiful, friendly and intelligent (ah, the love of a mother...paranoid and delusional).