Yesterday morning after taking the dogs out to do their business, I headed to my kids’ rooms to wake them up. I always go into Temera’s room first. The dogs run past me into her room and jump on her bed, pretty much guaranteed to wake her up. Next, I go wake up Amanda… although yesterday I happened to find Amanda fast asleep in Temera’s bed. It happens. They can fight all day long and yet still want to sleep together. Since Amanda was accounted for, I headed into Lauryn’s room. As usual, there was a huge lump under all those covers. Lauryn loves to sleep under a million blankets. I pulled the quilt off and found a pillow shoved underneath. No Lauryn.
Now, my daughter has a habit of sleeping in other people’s beds, so I figured if Amanda was in Temera’s bed, it was quite possible that Lauryn ended up in Amanda’s bed. Nope, she wasn’t there.
I checked the bathrooms. I checked the bedrooms again. I called her name.
No Lauryn.
My mind went back to that pillow looking like it had intentionally been left under the covers in her bed. Panic started to set in.
My mind went to all those news stories of little girls being taken right from their own beds, right from their own houses. In the middle of the night.
My heart was racing. I ran from room to room screaming her name, “LAURYN??????”
Nothing.
“DAVID…LAURYN IS MISSING!!!!!”
David came running.
“SHE ISN’T HERE!!!!!!”
Oh my God! What do I do? Where is she?
“LAURYN??????”
Temera came running into Lauryn’s room and looked around.
“Mom… she is hiding behind the doll house.”
WHAT?
She was laughing. She thought it was funny. She figured it was something fun for her to hide and not answer.
I could have killed her. Except all I wanted to do was hug her.
She was safe.
SHE WAS SAFE.
She scared the hell out of me.
She better NEVER do that again.
And I spent the rest of the day thinking about how lucky we are.
And I spent the rest of the day thinking about all the children who are still missing.
And I spent the rest of the day making sure all the locks on the doors and windows are working.
Nothing like that feeling! It’s horrible. Glad to hear all is ok. There is definitely a lot to be grateful for! My heart breaks for all those families with “real” missing children.
My daughter loved to do this when she was little, and it scared the crap out of me each and every time. I don’t remember how we got her to stop. Actually, I think she did it to my mom, her favorite person in the world, and was shamed by a word lashing like she’d never gotten before.
One remnant of the good ol’ days- we still use the latch we had installed at the top of the door after our first fright, just to make sure no one could get in (and no little one could get out!).
Nope, I woulda died of a heart attack before I killed her!
PAMELA TAYLOR recently posted..Test-Run in Asheville
That is quite a scare! I think as mother’s we are always checking on our children and with the news filled with stories of missing kids we are more aware of it. Our 6 year old sometimes drinks way too much water before going to bed only to “wake up” in the middle of night and to use the bathroom she then sometimes ends up sleeping in the living room or on our bedroom floor because she is not fully awake. I’ve walked into her room to not find her there and then I am searching all over to find her next to our bed on the floor! {on my husbands side}.
Lil’ stinker.
My 6 year old is the type to hide, he does it whenever his dad comes home from work/school or even out shopping and we usually play along but omg, if he did it like that in the morning when I’m half awake I’d lose it. Since we have a newborn now, I’m up a few times during the night and I’m always checking on him and making sure the front door is locked and windows are closed - Sad that this is how we have to be these days!
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