ALMOST the boy on the milk carton

Let me start my little story by saying that I know most moms have their own version of this same nightmare. This was comforting in the aftermath of our little "Nordstrom incident" on Friday. So, THANK YOU to all the sweet moms who shared their stories with me in an attempt to make me feel a little better. It helped.

We headed to Nordstrom on Friday morning to shop around a bit.....ok, ok we headed to Nordstrom because I wanted a new pair of sandals. But, we ended up on the third floor in the kid's shoe section trying on Crocs with a Lighting McQueen charm-thingy on it. I'm such a sucker - I know. I sat Dean down with his new shoes on to color and look at the fish tank 3 feet away from me. I turned to hand the cashier my card and turned back around to an empty little chair. I darted around the shoe section looking for him and FULLY expected to see him pop out from behind a chair. After realizing he was not in the shoe section I began to get hysterical. I remember repeating, "My baby is gone. My baby is gone! MY BABY IS GONE!"

Folks, there are no words to describe the fear and adrenaline that take hold of your body when you cannot find your little one.

So, the louder and more unglued I got, the more moms in the store began to notice. The sweet guy helping us called someone and said, "We have a code 7 on the third floor." I then instructed one mom to stand at the exit (which is right by the shoe section) and, "don't let anyone leave with a kid!" I then sprinted toward the escalator all the while thinking he was about to put his precious little fingers in the moving parts and get his arm ripped off. Just as I got there the escalator came to a screeching halt. Apparently, they shut off the escalators when a mom can't find her little one. Thank goodness for that. I then ran through a women's clothing section and began flipping up the clothes on the rounders.

No. Dean.

I continued screaming his name thinking he would pop out of somewhere. By this point a few other sweet moms had begun to call his name and help me search. After about 2-3 solid minutes of screaming and sprinting one mom yelled, "I'VE GOT HIM!!!!"

Music.

She had found him in a women's fitting room....laughing. I rounded the corner in tears, shaking and hugged him tight. I scooped him up and hugged the mom who had found him. When I finally stopped sprinting, baby #2 would not stop moving. Poor kid. He probably thought I had decided to take some sort of upper and go run a 5K!? I hope I haven't already damaged his psyche.

I returned to pick up the contents of my purse and pay for his new shoes that apparently give him the super-human powers to run faster than a speeding bullet and make himself invisible. Sheesh.

I'm so grateful to the sweet moms who spread out and help me look for him. They are angels. I was going bananas in that moment and I'm so glad they were there to look in all the places I probably should have checked first.

So in the wake of that experience I'm now in the market for a kid leash. Does anyone out there have any good kid leash suggestions? Actually, if I could, I'd just put a chip in his neck so I can track him from my cell phone or something. Kinda like baby Lo-Jack. Hey, with another little boy on the way I think these type of precautions are the only thing keeping me from going completely grey haired before my next birthday.

Here's a recent picture of the ultimate hide-and-seek winner....