Thursday, October 7, 2010

Lost and (thankfully) Found shortly thereafter

I lost him.

Our little broccali and bannnana and bean and stick and dirt lover.



Our budding little chef who loves to "help" in the kitchen.





Our little little buddy who is finally wearing 2T clothes,

even though the pants won't stay on his little waist.




Our adventerous little climber, who loves to cuddle and hold one of Mommy's and one of Daddy's hands when leave home. The little blond boy, that I still can't believe they let us take home from the hospital almost two years ago, who is a little confounded and confused by all of the stuff around him that he seems to recognize as his, but doesn't quite fit into anymore.




I lost him.
He was playing in the driveway while I tried to put new baby’s car seat back into the Xterra. I popped my head back out to check on him again because he wasn’t in my line of sight anymore. I yelled his name, and heard him yell back but still couldn’t see him. I called him again, with a little panic this time. Grizzly came running out of the paddock, running like he always does when he hears that tone in my voice. The horses stayed focused on whatever they were looking at behind the barn, and I ran around to see if it was Brayden.

It wasn’t.

I thought about the pond, beyond the gate that Brayden never crosses without one of his parents, overflowing with six inches of rain water that had just trucked down the creek. I thought about the water trough that I had just filled on the other end of the yard.

I took off running toward the pond, yelling “Brayden!” for all I was worth, around the front of the house, past the septic mound where he likes to test out his strength on the hill and down towards the gate.

No little buddy.

I kept yelling out his name and ran up the hill back towards the garage and the barn, trying to decide if I should take the time to call the neighbor for help, or just keep running around looking for him, frantically questioning where his short little legs could have carried him so quickly.

But the horses were still looking at the back of the barn. So I swallowed the contents of my stomach one more time and ran as fast as I could back behind the barn. And there, tucked up next to the lean-to that can hide so much, was our little man on a very serious stick hunt.

It was the worst 45 seconds of my life.

But Brayden didn’t seem to notice. He showed me the stick he found and that he was sharing with Grizzly.

And I don’t think I will take my eyes off of him again until he goes to college.

3 comments:

Kayla said...

Isn't that the scariest thing ever?! I've lost Jordan twice now and it is so panicking!

Unknown said...

Oh Kelley, that is one of my worst nightmares....I'm so glad you found him.

Anonymous said...

SCARY...SUCH A HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE feeling. It happens to the best of us honey. Your mama included. Glad that ones out of the way. Love you sweetheart.