Daniel, Lula, the Park, and Strangers

Yesterday, Mark had to work.  Like, not in the house.  He actually had to drive far away and sit in a meeting all. day. long.  Poor guy.  Poor me.  I was stuck having to haul our brood of active children to two dance classes and a Boy Scout meeting.  I normally take Fiona to her 4:00 dance class alone while the older kids watch the younger kids at home while Mark works in his office.  He is available for emergencies, but they normally don't need him.  I just can't control Lula and Daniel in dance class or run after them at the park like I used to.  But yesterday, sigh, I had no choice.

My older kids were gracious enough to help me keep Lula and Daniel happy on the playground. This meant that anyone who was "too old" to play on the playground could still have an excuse to have fun...

 ...I'm not naming names or anything.  Now, Lula has always been an independent little girl.  She has never needed someone to entertain her and she never looks back to make sure a big person is following when she dashes down the driveway or across a field.  Two days ago, someone didn't shut the front door all the way.  Lula came by a few minutes later and headed outside. Alone.  I was reading history out loud to the other kids and had no idea she was gone.  I thought she was in the back of the house harassing Mark.  But I selfishly took advantage of the silence to keep reading.  The silence lasted just a little too long, so I sent Fiona to go check to see what Lula was getting into.  She was the one that discovered the open door and the missing toddler.  Luckily, she was only visiting the chickens and Mark could see her from his office window.  But now we have to make sure the doors get closed all the way!  (And you know your house is cold when the door is wide open for a half hour and no one feels the temperature difference)

The candid picture above shows the guilty sibling who let Lula go down the big slide alone.  You can see Lula shooting out the bottom, just before she hit the ground.  Good thing she is a tough Downen kid.  She has been in training her whole life:

Daniel just can't keep out of other people's personal spaces.  It isn't normally too much of a problem, but when he is tired or over-excited, he holds Lula and won't let go.  He doesn't hold her in a mean way, just in a very exuberant life-loving way.  She has gotten really good at screaming her defense, before he can even touch her!  I'm trying to remind him that every person has a bubble that no one can see and when we go inside a person's bubble without permission, we can pop it.  So now I'm hearing, "Get out of my bubble!" and "You popped my bubble! Wah!"  Yesterday, I was snuggling my little man and I started tickling him.  "I'm popping your bubble!" I laughed.  Daniel made his meanest face and said, "I don't have a bubble! I have a ROCK!"  All I could do was kiss his sweet little nose and laugh.  He was so quick to choose a material (rock) that was unpenetrable that was the same shape as a bubble.  His quick wit is much like Ian's.

Okay, back to the park.  We played during Fiona's class and spent the hour between the girls' classes at the library and grocery store.  We dropped Evie off at her class and Ian went to Boy Scouts, so Shane was now the oldest kid.  By this time, it was dark outside.  This pregnant mama needed to use the facilities.  I put Shane in charge of watching Fiona and Daniel with explicit instructions about constant vigilance and strangers.  I gave a quick lecture to Fiona and Daniel to not leave the park with anyone but Shane.  (There was only one dad with his Daniel-aged son there whose daughter was dancing in Evie's class)  I took Lula inside with me.  By the time I was heading back out the door to the park, the dad was standing there with Daniel and his son.  Daniel said, "Look, Mom! I found a stranger!"  The dad was apologetic and said that Daniel had followed him and his son to the building.  I thanked him for watching Daniel and wondered what the heck his brother was doing...and then headed back out to where Shane was completely unaware that Daniel was missing.  Let us just say that Shane (and partially Fiona) were/are in major trouble for not even noticing that Daniel had left the park with a stranger.  It wasn't like there were a ton of people and noise that would prevent Shane from seeing or hearing what was going on!  Boy, was I MAD! I'm just thankful that the stranger was another dad who was trying to keep his son entertained while his daughter danced-just like us.