Dedicated to my Uncle Bruce, The First Part Anyways!

I wanted to post yesterday, but work and life did not permit. Yesterday was a Math lovers special day. It was square root day. 3-3-09. The next one won't be until 4-4-16. I actually considered waiting to get married until yesterday, but Tuesdays are just hard days....

I almost lost Olivia, again. I think the most scariest thing for a mother to do is allow her kids to grow up. Olivia is almost three and wants Independence. I don't know why, but she is very insistent on this. She loves to walk in front of me. The other night Jonathan and I took Olivia shopping with us. She wanted to walk, and since I had just the one child with me and two adults, I figured, why not? She would run a ways up ahead, but always stopped when I said stop. She'd wait until I said go and take off again. She was listening so well.

When we shop we usually have two carts, one for each girl and parent. We play hide and seek in between the aisles. It actually quite fun, especially in a place like Walmart. This trip we were playing it, but Olivia was next to me the whole time. We "found" missing daddy, and I reached up to grab some frozen veggies, thinking she was with the new "found" daddy. I turned back to the cart, and he was there, but no Olivia.

We split in opposite directions and started looking in aisles. Through each break in the aisle, we could each see the panicked face. I was getting more frantic by the second. My search took to a cashier. I explained that my two-year old was missing. She said there was nothing she could do! I started walking to the other side of the store, where customer service was. I think you could actually see my heart pounding out of my chest. I finally spotted an employee with a walkie-talkie and told her my situation. She immediately issued a code "Adam" and sent two employees to man the exits. Nobody was to leave the store with a two-year old child.

My arms were covered in goose bumps, I couldn't swallow, tears were rolling down my cheeks. I lost my basket somewhere, and I just stood there. I didn't know where to go, where to look, I myself was lost. I just kept praying that she was okay and that she would be found.

While all this was going on I lost Jonathan. After a couple of minutes, which seemed like hours, Jonathan came toward me holding Olivia. The tears of relief and joy ran down my face. I could finally breathe.

Olivia had been so caught up in our game of hide and seek, she wandered into the back stocking room. I have no clue how she got past all the employees there, but I am so grateful she was safe and sound. I think I'll keep her in the cart a little longer...........