Hide-And-Go-Sleep

Oh I am a bit behind on my blogging again.  Things have been a bit crazy around here.  One post at a time and I will catch up!

Many of you have probably heard my scary story from a couple of weeks ago, but I need to have it down so I can tease her with it when she is 18. 

Anyway, we had just gotten home from a fun morning of playing and picnicking with some friends at the park.  I was trying to get everything put away and picked up and move on with the afternoon.  I had already laid Miss Thumb Sucker down for her nap and told Miss Firecracker that her turn was soon coming.  I sat down on the couch to prepare my Bible study materials since my mentor was going to be at my house in a few minutes.

I sent Miss Firecracker to the bathroom and told her to head to bed when she was done, then I would come tuck her in and give her kisses.  So, she headed back to the bathroom as I finished getting my things ready.  I got distracted in my things and didn't realize that the 5 minutes I had passed very quickly and my mentor was knocking on my front door.  I went and answered it and told her I needed to jet back and tuck in Miss Firecracker, but would be right back out.

So, I headed back to her bedroom and found it empty.  Curious.  So I figured she had decided to hang out in the bathroom a bit longer to prolong laying down for a nap.  Nope.  Bathroom was empty.  I came out to the living room to see if Noisy Man had seen her go anywhere, and he had not.  So, I checked my bathroom to see if for some reason she decided to use that one instead.  Wrong again.

I sent Noisy Man downstairs to see if she decided to avoid nap all together and just play out of mommy's line of vision.  He headed down there and asked my mentor to go along with him while I went out and checked the back yard.  Still no luck. 

We searched all the bedrooms (which had a sleeping child in 2 of them, so quietness was important at first), I went downstairs to check the back rooms and bathroom, we checked the garage, the van, the swing set, everywhere around our house.  So, then I got to thinking maybe she went outside and the neighbor kids were out.  So I was about to text a neighbor mom to see if she had seen her, when I stepped outside and she was out there with all of her kids.  She hadn't seen her either so her whole gang joined in the search party. 

We split up down the block checking with other neighbors and I ran back to the pond that is just 100 yards behind our house.  Still nothing.  A half an hour had passed.  I was hitting panic mode by now.  Quietness had gone out the window and I was just screaming for her. 

This whole time in my mind I am just praying that God would open my eyes to see her and wondering if I had ever had that conversation with her that goes over never to get in the car with a stranger.  If any of you know Miss Firecracker, you know what a softy she is.  She just loves everyone.  If you will give her a hug, you are her instant best friend.  This is a great attribute to have until it comes to strangers.  I couldn't remember for the life of me ever talking to her about strangers before and was sure I had just failed as a mother.

I had this relentless feeling that I needed to check the basement.  Noisy Man and my mentor had checked it three times, but the time I went down there I only looked in the back 2 rooms and the bathroom.  I hadn't really looked anywhere else.  So, even though my mentor had just come up from looking down there for the 3rd time 3 minutes before, I decided to follow the Holy Spirit leading that little piece of mother's intuition in me and check for myself.  As I search and yelled her name, I was dialing Daddy to finally let him in on the search. 

I was walking out of our store room when I looked down into the box of our indoor slide (you know, the kind with the square climbing part on the back with a platform in the middle and the slide goes out the front) and saw the cutest little foot ever.  She had climbed inside the box and underneath the platform and fell asleep.  I must have made some kind of noise because it startled her awake.  I grabbed her and hugged her and asked her what in the heck she was doing underneath the slide!  She must have thought she was in trouble because she started crying and said she just wanted to sleep down there. 

I rushed upstairs to relieve the search party, in such a tizzy that I left Miss Firecracker downstairs.  Nice one, mommy.  She came up and I grabbed her once again.

It took us over a half hour to find her.  What a terrifying experience.  I hope it never happens again.  We have now had the 'stranger danger' talk (which she said they had already talked about at school) and also went over a talk I didn't know was all that necessary, but evidently is, the fact that you don't sleep anywhere but your own bed unless you tell mommy where you are going.  :)