Escape Artist

On Saturday morning Kayla nearly gave me a heart attack.

I was in one bathroom blow drying my hair. Joe went to the other bathroom to take a shower. Kayla went to the living room.

When I finished I walked down the hallway to the living room and realized it sounded a little too quiet. I thought maybe Kayla was watching Noggin, but nope she wasn't there.

Usually that kind of quiet means your child is up to no good and getting into something they shouldn't be. But then I thought there was just something different about this type of quiet, too quiet. It was more like a type of quiet where I felt like Kayla's presence was not even in the house. All this went through my mind in a matter of seconds.

Before I started freaking out too much I let out one sharp "Kayla!" and I heard her answer me with, "slide!" Oh no she's not I thought. But I knew what I would see when I looked out the living room window...Kayla was climbing the steps to her slide, in the backyard, in the backyard that is not fenced in on one side.

Even though I could see her, even though I knew she was obviously ok, my heart still raced and caught in my throat all at once. I ran over to the screen door that leads out to the patio in the backyard and was going to fling it open when I realized it was locked. As I was unlocking it I wondered, fleetingly, how she managed to get outside if the door was locked.

I quickly scooped her up and promptly took her to the bathroom where Joe was still in the shower. I said to him, "Do you know where I just found your daughter?" (Yes at times when she's getting into trouble I refer to her as "his daughter" and he likewise refers to her as "my daughter"). He said, "uh oh. What was she getting in to this time?" I said, "it's not what she was getting into, it's where she WAS!" and told him where I found her and added, "Do you know what this is doing to my heart right now at just the mere thought of where she could have gone?" He replied, "oh I know just how you feel!"

I figured out how she got outside. Our screen isn't very secure in the frame and it pops out easily. Joe's fixed it before, but Kayla has a tendency to lean against the screen, or push against it, and the screen is loose. She obviously did this while we were each in a bathroom and decided to just help herself to the backyard.

Thank you God that she only stayed in the backyard and went to her slide. But just the thought of how easily she could have wandered away is enough to get my heart racing. It would have been so easy for her to go between the yards and be on the next street over, or just wander down this street. Granted, we live on base and she couldn't have walked off base, but still. She gave me one heck of a scare.

The sliding glass door will now be in place and locked so she doesn't pull any more disappearing acts.