Lost and found Andrew

I was reading all ya'lls blog's today, and I came across my friend Shae's blog. She blogged about how her hubby left their gate open and their dog got out and was lost for a short time. Luckily a neighbor of ours (Shae lives down the street from me), found her dog (if you read this Shae, I really hope you don't mind me using you as an example). Well, today we had a similar experience with Andrew! And just like Shae's story, it was my hubby who lost Andrew!

Let's start back to this morning. All five of us went to pick up Mark's 98 year old grandmother at her assisted living home to take her to Mark's office to get her teeth checked. Mark doesn't work on Friday's, and we decided to make it a family affair. Two quick side notes, I used to be a dental assistant so I do know my way around a dental office, and this is the same grandma we lived with our first year out of dental school. Back to the losing the child story. For about 45 minutes or so, James and Andrew watched Chicken Little, I suctioned and Mark did what he does best (fixed some teeth), while Caleb was strapped to my back in a Snuggli. I'm sure it was quite a sight. Around 11:30 I had to leave to hurry and run James home, feed him lunch, then drive the carpool to kindergarten. I took Caleb with me and Andrew insisted that he wanted to stay with dad and grandma. I looked at Mark, and he said, "sure, that's fine." Chicken Little was on, and we both assumed he would just sit and finish the movie while Mark finished up with grandma. I hurried and drove home, gave James his lunch, picked up the neighbor girl, and dropped them off at school. I then drove over to Mark's office which is no more than 5 minutes from the school. I got Caleb out of the car and we walked to the office door. It was locked. I thought it was strange, but I just unlocked it and walked in. Andrew was on the floor looking glum, and the first thing he says is "yous left me and I wanted to go too." Grandma was in the bathroom and Mark was cleaning up. All I had to do was take one look at Mark and I knew something went wrong. This is what Mark told me-

He was finishing up with Grandma when he decided to go check on Andrew (it had been only a few minutes since I had left). To his horror, Andrew was no where to be found! Now, his office is on a fairly busy street and of course Mark started to panic. He raced outside, and there was Andrew, standing on the corner, with a lady by his side. I also need to add that when we left the house that morning in a rush, I neglected to get Andrew's shoes and he had left over breakfast smeared on his little face. It turns out that just after I left, Andrew was sad that I had gone, so he went to go look for me. He went outside (which he knows he is not allowed to be outside by himself the little stinker) and was thinking about crossing the busy street (AHHHHHH, am I even teaching this kid anything????) when this kind women thankfully stopped him and asked him "where are your parent's?" and " what are you doing out here by yourself?" Andrew told her he was trying to find his mom, and his dad was at his office (which was just down the stairs, but she didn't know that). She then CALLED THE POLICE, but right after she did that, Mark rushed out of his office, and thanked her and quickly explained our situation. He was so embarrassed and was so worried that the cops would come and site him with being a negligent parent! Not really, but luckily the lady did call the cops back to tell them not to come, or else Mark might be in jail! ;) Gosh, this is turning out to be a novel. I'll be surprised if anyone really does read this. I am horrified by this story, but just so thankful for the happy ending. I'm grateful to that nice lady who saved my 3 year old from crossing the street to "find his mom." So, the moral of this post is, parents, watch your children and your dogs closely! You may not be lucky enough to have a neighbor or a strange lady rescue them for you. Lock them in your house and don't forget to close the gate!!!!