A Cautionary Tale

Yesterday I had a scary thing happen while I was running on the treadmill. I try to run when Taber is home but that isn't always possible, so sometimes I'll put on a show for the girls upstairs and run in the basement with the baby monitor while they watch their show. It has NEVER been a problem before. They've always been perfect angels and have never gotten into any trouble. If they get bored they usually just come down in the basement and play.

I have a bunch of their stuff down there and they are really good about not touching the treadmill ( I scared them with some horror stories of kids getting their fingers caught in the belt) So yeah, they are NORMALLY super good and I can get away with running during the day if I need to.

At least until yesterday.

Yesterday during my run I heard the loud sounds of a chair being dragged across the floor upstairs. I wasn't too worried but I still kicked up the speed on the treadmill so I could finish faster and investigate. I thought maybe they were getting into the pantry and were using a chair so they could get into the chocolate chips or the marshmallows.

What they were doing was way worse.

I don't know if it was the good weather or the new neighbor boy hanging out in our yard beckoning them to come play, but whatever it was, something tempted them to leave the house.

I of course had locked the door, with the chain, and instructed the girls not to go outside until I was done running and could go with them.

But I should've known better. You can never underestimate a 5 year old with a chair. That lock didn't stand a chance.

As I was coming up the stairs to see what they were up to Teya met me half way in an absolute panic. She quickly blurted out that our dog had escaped and it was her fault and she was sorry. Our dog has escaped before so I wasn't worried, just annoyed. I told Teya to stay in the house and went outside to look for him. He can usually be found across the street in our neighbors backyard.

What I found back there though was this girl:

Finding that your 2 year old has escaped the house and wandered off is not a good feeling. You don't feel relief for finding her, your mind is too busy going through all the what ifs. What if she had been hit by a car? What if someone had taken her? What if she had wondered off into the woods and gotten hurt or lost or stuck somewhere and I couldn't find her? It was too unsettling to even think about. I was so upset. Upset that Teya had found a way to open the door and disobeyed me, but more upset at myself for not being more careful.

On the upside, we live on a culdesac with virtually no traffic, she had only wandered across the street into our neighbor's backyard, and there was another adult outside who, even though they didn't speak English, had seen where she'd gone and pointed me in the right direction.

Still, I will try not to run during the day anymore unless the girls are at preschool or Taber is home to watch them. They are good girls who hardly ever get into trouble, but all it takes is once, and I really don't want that to happen again.