HELP!!! I CAN'T FIND JACK!!

My kids rarely wander from the house. I leave doors open all the time because the kids stay in our yard. It was such a nice day that I had left the front and back door open and Jack had been in and out for most of the morning. After a while, Jack decided to play with Juliet in my closet. I picked up Juliet and took her into the other bathroom to fix her hair. I was gone for maybe 4 minutes. The phone rings and it's my neighbor down the street, telling me I don't need to pick up her girl from the Kindergarten bus. I say, "okay" and then start wondering where Jack is. I look in my closet and he's not there. I run around the house saying, "Jack. Where are you buddy??" Both my front and back doors are still open. I look upstairs, downstairs, front yard, back yard and side yards. I call back my friend down the street and ask, "You haven't seen Jack have you??" -"Nope."

I'm starting to get nervous. I run through the house and start yelling, "Jack!" "Jack I need you to talk to Mommy!!" I look in my closet again and move the dresses, thinking he might be hiding. No luck. I jump in the Tahoe with Juliet and we start combing the neighborhood. I drive up and down the streets, asking neighbors along the way to keep their eyes open. I drive along the dirt roads, thinking he might have gotten curious about the big construction vehicles over by the new Wal-Mart. I drive down to the end of the construction and turn around. I call Merril, starting to get frantic, "I can't find Jack, I don't even know where to look!! I checked all over the house and the neighborhood!" Merril replies, "I'm coming home!! I'll be there soon!"

Friends and neighbors are looking by now. I drive down to the fire station, thinking he might be down there. I drive to another neighborhood and look around. No luck. I'm thinking to myself, if Jack's not around the neighborhood, then someone's taking him away from me. Taking him away to hurt him. I drove back to the house. I am screaming in the house, "JACK!! TALK TO MOMMY BUDDY!!!" I look in the dryer...I look in the oven..."JACK!!"...I start opening every cupboard in my bathroom. I look in my closet again and frantically move dresses and then look in the opposite corner. Curled up by Merril's shoes with his brown blanket around his head is Jack, sleeping. His brown blanket made him blend in with the carpet and he was so sleepy that my screaming didn't even wake him up. Waves of relief pour over me. I pick him up and start sobbing. Jack, still sleepy, opens his eyes and wipes the tears off my face, confused at why I'm so upset. I'm relieved! So relieved. He was lost to me for 25 minutes. That's a very long time to be thinking about what someone else could be doing with my son. I just cry and hold him, grateful that my little boy was never really lost at all. (It makes me cry again to write it all down.)

But to lighten the mood, the rest of the day was great and we had popcorn for an afternoon snack. And after you eat all the popcorn, the bowl makes a great chair.

Seriously, I can never be mad at this face.