Some things never change

I lost a kid for the first time last week!  It was at Sea World.  I was sitting with two friends and our (together) five kids at the dolphin show.  The show was over and one friend started to walk out with three of the four year olds (my two and hers).  My other friend was having trouble getting her baby carrier on so I helped her a bit, then got moving up the bleachers because I could see that "friend one" was getting ahead with my two kids and I wanted to catch up.

When I caught up with "friend one" she had her daughter and my daughter and said that Jackson had gotten a little ahead.  That wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that it was wall-to-wall people!  I couldn't see Jackson anywhere.  I started to head his way but couldn't really get through the crowd that easily.  We were on a ramp that had switchbacks so I went to the edge to see if I could look down and see him on the next switchback, and yell to him to stop and wait for me.  As we got closer to the turn, I could see him standing next to the garbage can - he has stopped!  As I got closer I could see that he was crying and a few people had stopped to help him.  :-(  I yelled out, "he's mine!"

When I got to him he was crying and scared!  I picked him up and carried him the rest of the way through the exiting crowd.

I felt terrible that I had let him go.  I thought he was in the hands of another parent but apparently, she did not feel the need to keep him close.

Lesson learned - keep the kids close (like holding their hands!), especially in a crowd!

That was last Thursday.  Last night we got a book from the library called, "Some things change."  The book was describing things that change - weather, day to night, kids growing, house getting painted, etc.  On the last page it said that some things never change, with a picture of a parent hugging his/her (it was a penguin so I'm not sure of the sex!) kids.

I explained to the kids that one of the things that never changes is that mommy and daddy love them, and we will always be together.  And Jackson said, we were not together when I got lost at Sea World.  :-(  Poor little dude!

I told him how that was scary for us but we got back together very quickly, just as soon as I found him.  Hopefully, it didn't scar him too badly!