We lost this kid on Friday. Literally lost her. In our 1300 square foot house.
We were preparing for movie night. The feature presentation for the evening was an old Addams Family episode per Grace's request. The munchkins were very excited. (Weird, right?)
I made everyone finish their household chores while I made popcorn, and as we all gathered for the movie, we realized Claire was gone. We knew she had fallen asleep. She always does. And so we began the search for Claire laughing. But after we had checked the closets, under her bed, and the oven, panic set in. Brad ran up and down the alley calling her name, I searched in the dark garage. Brad finally got in the car to go look for her and I checked her bedroom one more time. I lifted up her flat, completely lumpless comforter. And found her underneath it. Sleeping, obviously. It would have been hilarious if we hadn't been terrified.
I remember when it took me a while to find one of my son's who fell asleep under his bed. The mattress definitely tops that though! I would have never even thought to look there.
ReplyDeleteYour grandma Estes left us with her father, great grandpa Snow during a rare occasion when they were in WA visiting us. Grandma Estes did not know that she was driving off to her meeting with Uncle Steve asleep in the very back of her car. He was probably 4 years old. Grandpa spent the whole time looking for Steve, a couple of hours. He was still asleep when Grandma Estes returned and she still didn't know she had him. I'm surprised that experience alone didn't kill poor Grandpa Snow.
ReplyDeleteStomach. Drops. To. Feet.
ReplyDeleteI was 'babysitting' my brothers for my parents when they were out of town, just after Gary and I were married. My youngest brother was like 5 at the time, and he went missing. It didn't take long for me to notice that he was gone. We ran through the house screaming his name, searching everywhere. Under beds. Out back. In closets. In the car. Everywhere.
I finally took to the streets and stopped every car that passed by, like a possessed person, begging to let me look in their car AND TRUNK (no, sadly, I'm not joking) to make sure Bentley wasn't with them (read: prove that they didn't kidnap my baby brother). Everyone was willing to open up their cars (again, NO I'm not joking) and they all started ransacking the neighborhood with us. 911 was called. Police were involved. About an hour later ... we found him. Asleep. On a pillow. In the jacuzzi tub in my parent's bathroom. Those tubs are deep. And it was easy for a dozen people to rush through the bathroom looking for him and not see him. (The tub is in the back corner of the bathroom.)
I'm telling you, it's still the second most anxiety producing moment in my life. The first ... also involves Bentley. When he was lost. On the crowded beach of Myrtle Beach. Later found ... 3 miles down shore. He had apparently chased a speed boat for 3 miles. What 3 year old can run for 3 miles on a beach?! For the love.
One time my nephew fell asleep under a pile of dirty clothes in my sisters closet. Of course they didn't discover him there till after the police had been called and everyone was on the search for him. Thats too funny that she was in her bed the whole time.
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