Yesterday was an interesting day. We went to church, and then after Ellie and her class were done singing the special music at the 11:00 service, we came home, changed clothes and drove to Albany to a gun show. Lynn had been wanting to go to this for a few weeks, and it was a nice family outing. We had lunch at Burger King, and then on to the gun show. If you have never been to a gun show, it is a huge room full of tables that are covered with things such as rifles, knives, bullet, and basically anything that is gun related. Not terrible interesting unless you are into guns.
Miles thought it was terribly fun to run up and down the aisles with me chasing him. Evidently he thought we brought the double stroller as a shopping cart for Dad. Ellie, who rarely gets to ride in the stroller, wanted to sit in the stroller. So Lynn kept the stroller and Ellie and Miles ran, while I followed him.
Well, after about an hour or so, and our third or fourth trip around the show, we came back to where Lynn was. As we were walking up to him, the stroller looked empty. I figured Ellie was behind him or under the table, or somewhere close. When we got to him I asked, "Where's Ellie?" the look of panic on his face was quite telling. I threw Miles into the stroller, strapped him in, and we both took off in opposite directions looking for her. One of the guys at the table went to the exit and told security. After what seemed like an hour, in reality was about 5 minutes, they over the loudspeaker that she was at the back table. By that time I had just about lost it. A lady came up to me and took me to where she was. She was standing there looking very scared, surrounded by about 3 security guys. She had gotten bored with sitting in the stroller, and decided to find me and Miles. Lynn was talking to the guys at the table, and not paying real close attention to the stroller. Who knows how long she had been wandering the gun show by herself.
The lady that took me to her said that she saw her wandering, looking like she knew where she was going, but thought that she wasn't supposed to be alone. Everyone at the gun show was great, and if we had to lose her, we are thankful it was there, where all the possible exits are monitered.
We both learned a valuable lesson too. You can't predict what a three year old is going to do, and have to know where they are all the time. We don't ever want to be that scared again! Praise God that
1 comment:
I can just see you running up and down the aisles after Miles! What fun! Didn't you say you were trying to get more exercise? He's helping you out, Mom!
There is nothing quite like the unspoken terror of having a child wonder off like that. We used to put a leash on Jim, because he would just meander off to look at something and not have any clue that we weren't following him. He hated the leash, so the threat of it was a good incentive to stick close.
Aaah, the joy of children. Never a dull moment, hmmmm?
Love,
Retta
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