Besides the small detail of having my very worst fear realized, it was a pretty nice weekend.
We started off taking the kids to swim class. My daughter has graduated to the next level (Go Little Tuna Girl!) and has a new instructor, Mr. Nathan. Woo hoo! Now I get to spend an entire hour every Saturday morning ogling hot, wet, delicious, Mr. Nathan. I mean, I get to spend an hour every Saturday morning watching the kids develop as swimmers. Yeah. That's it.
At one point Mr. Nathan hoisted himself out of the water to sit on the side of the pool and his board shorts slipped down just a bit...
I can't go on.
On Sunday, after the boy's soccer game we noticing that someone had smacked into the rear of my car and broken our back-up warning system. This could have happened anytime within the past few days, but I am so disheartened. I stood in the parking lot and declared, "I swear this car is cursed!"
We headed to the local super sports store to stock up on t-ball and softball equipment. Practice starts the week after next. The place was mobbed with soccer players and their parents searching for the right baseball/softball equipment.
Now, if you're not a long-time reader you might not know the importance of softball in my life. Let's just say that it's like a religion to me. At one point my husband left us to get a cart to put all of our purchases in. My daughter and I were pouring over glove choices. And my son was chattering away, as usual.
My husband came back to us and said, "I couldn't get a cart. They're all gone. Where's the boy?"
And I had no idea. I know that a moment ago he had asked my daughter if he could hold her softball, so I figured he couldn't be far. But he wasn't in the aisle.
Recently my mom and I were talking about the time I got lost in a store. She swears I wandered away. I swear she wandered away. Either way, it is one of her most vivid memories of motherhood. And I can understand why.
I didn't actually panic. But I wanted to. I made my daughter hold my shirt and we started looking down every aisle for him. I was worried he had gone outside looking for his father.
My husband found him in the cleat section, which is the last place we had been.
A friend asked me if I was ready to kill my son. But I wasn't. I was ready to kill me.
A Saturday afternoon at a sports store filled with little soccer players has got to be a dream come true for a child predator. And a little boy wandering around calling for his mom has got to be a prime target. If someone had held out his hand and told him that his mom was looking for him over here, he probably would have gone with him. A predator could have been out of that store and miles away before we knew it.
I was a little freaked. It was one of those things that I had to let go, just to move on.
We spent the afternoon playing softball together.
My little girl has an arm! I cannot in a million years explain to you how it feels to spend an afternoon playing softball with my daughter. And I had no idea she was so coachable. Why can't violin practice be this fun?
It's funny how life is. Before I had kids, I had good days and bad days. Now I have good moments and bad moments. And sometimes I have stellar moments and horrifying moments.
It's a wonder that parents can survive at all.
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