Damn Kids.

My daughter is now almost 3, and she is the most outgoing kid I have ever met. Happy, opinionated, POTTY TRAINED!!!! (woo woo!) and just all around a pain in my ass. :)

Today, she gave me a heart attack.

My mom used to tell me stories of how, when I was a kid, I was a hider. They locked down the Oklahoma City mall once looking for me, and I was enjoying a make believe picnic between the clothes racks at the JCPenney. I also got lost at Sea World or Six Flags or some amusement park equivalent. I remember being 15 and laughing SO much about how funny that must have been for my mom. She was not impressed.

Pay backs are hell.

Today, I was at the grocery store, mailing off some super important document that my now Vegas-residing husband HAD TO HAVE RIGHT THIS MINUTE. GO NOW AND DO IT!!!  So, I schlepped my kids up to the store to their post office kiosk. Since we were only going to be there a minute, I bypassed the carts. It would take 2 seconds. No biggie.

Well, in that 2 seconds, I managed to lose my daughter...or more so, she lost me.  I looked down the check out aisles, and over by the videos thinking "she couldn't have gone too far in 2 seconds."  Couldn't find her.  Blood pressure rising, I called out her name.  No response.  So I started looking a bit farther from the post office, and couldn't find her there, either.  Now it was a Code Red, all out panic.  I found the manager, and he put the store on lock down looking for my kid. The clerks all stopped what they were doing to look for her. I was close to hysterics.

Three minutes later, they found her. In the bakery aisle. Trying to sweet talk some old lady for a cookie from the free sample bin.

She is now the lucky, lucky kid who gets to wear the .Lowered Expectations Monkey Leash.

Damn kids.