Monday, July 17, 2006

Today Emma and I went to the thrift store for a little shopping. There are long racks of clothes that make up aisles from one side of the store to the other. While I browsed, Emma played under the racks, hiding in the clothes. At one point I noticed that she had gone all the way to the other side of the rack. I walked over to the next aisle to get her, but she was nowhere to be found. I called her name as I walked by all the aisles, searching for her. No Emma. Getting a little more nervous, I crouched down and looked under all the clothes in each aisle. Nothing. I went over to look in the toy section, then the purses, then the furniture. Still no Emma. I was feeling a little panicked at this point, and people were starting to stare at me as I was running around calling for her. It had probably been four minutes since I'd seen her, but it felt like forever. I convinced myself that someone had snatched her up and carried her out of the store. I found an employee, and decsribed Emma for her. Some of the customers stopped to witness my frantic blathering, and they asked me more questions about her appearance, dress, etc. Someone announced over the speaker that a little two year old girl was lost and asked that everyone please look for her. A minute later, a man came over and tapped me on the shoulder. He led me to a corner of the store and pointed behind a big shelf full of toys. There was Emma, happily playing, and completely unaware that her mother was about to have a heart attack. As soon as I saw her I started crying and I think I scared her because she started crying when I ran over to her. Now that I think back on it, it probably wasn't that big of a deal because, really, how far could she have gone? At the time, though, I was too scared to think rationally. I'm never letting her out of my sight again.

As of now, our calendar for this whole week is empty. I'm looking forward to days with nothing to do but play around the house. However, it is insanely hot so the playing will probably take place inside the house. We bought Candy Land at the thrift store today and I can see several hundred games of that in my near future.

4 comments:

Chick in the Czech said...

Man, Candy Land is the best. I used to always want to be the ice cream fairy or the fudge mud man at the end. He was pretty cool.

Anonymous said...

I wish you could have bought the old, old version of Candyland from my childhood in which the boy looked just like my coulsin, John!

Shawn said...

Oh my I'm so glad you found her! Bethany has also started doing this..it is so scary! Have fun with candy land I love that game! :)

Katie said...

as a kid i used to LOVE hiding in the racks of clothes, and mom would get so mad at me when i did that. ...i guess now i know why! I'm glad you found her all safe & sound. :)
hugs!
kt