I just lost ten years of my life..

Kids will do that to you!

Now that the weather has turned nice the kids often walk home from school. Brendan is 12, Sydney is 10, Riley is 9 and Logan is 7. Their elementary school is primarily walkers so there are a plethora of kids around at the end of the day. I still worry until they all come walking in the door.

Today Brendan, Riley and Logan came running in the door and the very first words out of Brendan's mouth were, "Is Sydney home yet???" Ummm... WHAT???? Sydney is supposed to be with them! Brendan claimed that Sydney "ran ahead of them". Ok so then she SHOULD be here if she went AHEAD of them. She wasn't.

Now before I went into panic mode I did I quick look around the house. Not that she could have gotten in without me seeing her but ya' just never know with kids. I once went into full blown mental breakdown because Brendan, then 3, went "missing". Frantic searching of the entire house and there was no sign of him. I was seconds away from dialing 911 when I saw a tiny foot sticking out from under my bed. He'd crawled under there to "hide from Mommy" and had fallen asleep. Needless to say several new gray hairs erupted on my head that day.

A seasoned parent now, I still didn't panic when there was no sign of Sydney in the house. I sent Brendan out to look around for her. I thought maybe she'd gotten sidetracked with some friends. Ten minutes went by and there was still no sign of Sydney or Brendan. NOW I'm starting to panic.

I ordered Riley and Logan into the van and started driving around looking for them. Mind you, we live all of three blocks from the elementary school so it didn't take me long to search the only two routes they could have taken home. No sign of them. Ok full panic mode!!! And I'd been in such a hurry to go looking for them I'd left my cell phone at home.

Now if I'd been thinking straight it would have occurred to me to check IN the school. I wasn't thinking straight. My mind was going places no parent ever wants to go and I had a 9 and 7 year old feeding off my obvious distress asking me over and over "Where are they???".

I raced back to the house, grabbed my cell phone and saw there was a missed call from the school. The panic started to ease a teensy bit. I returned the call and sure enough the school secretary assured me that both Sydney and Brendan were safe and sound and on their way home.

Apparently Brendan had assumed that Sydney had run ahead because he didn't see her outside of the school. Sydney, upon not seeing her brothers, went back into the school to look for them. My God... I think I have a few more gray hairs and the ulcer I'm going to get is just a tad bit closer. Oh my God... my heart is still beating out of my chest!!