Runaway Gav

It finally happened. Yesterday... I lost a child. At Target. More like he lost me. Not cool.

Gavin has decided to embrace his two-ness lately and been a tad wilder while out of the cart. Especially at Target. He generally is a cautious boy, but he's two. Things tend to go out the window when you are two. 

I was in the guy section of Target, looking for stocking stuffers for dear husband. James and Gavin were goofing off about two-three feet away from me. Gavin started getting the mischievous look in his eyes and started going further away. I asked him to come back. Of course he didn't. I turned around and saw Jack almost completely turned around in his cart seat, starting to stand. Seriously, if the strap isn't perfectly tight on him, he can wiggle his way till he stands. Scares me half to death. I get back to the cart to wrangle the one-year old, and as I do so, Gavin decides to run off. James tells me, "I'll go get him!" Such a good brother.  He loves to corral his little brothers. He runs off after him, I get Jack properly back in his seat and cinch the belt. I hear a little boy making his way back. James comes around the corner, without Gavin, and says, "Mommy, he ran away." He looked so put out, like he couldn't believe his brother wouldn't let him bring him back and be good. I was livid. So not what I needed!

We set off looking for him, checking the section we had been in quickly to make sure he wasn't hiding. No Gavin. I started muttering some not so great stuff. We headed for the main aisle, looking down each small aisle for any signs of him. We walked all the way down to the boy toy section. He wasn't there or anywhere in between. I was worried that if we got too far from where we were originally that we'd miss him heading back. Knowing Gavin, I knew he'd head back the where we had been when he was good and ready. We headed back, double checking, looking for a Target worker to help us out. All of a sudden they had disappeared. Awesome. Went back, he still wasn't there. Next we tried down between the older boy and baby/toddler section. As I was looking back over to the other main aisle, I see little Gavin trotting by. "GAVIN WESTMORELAND!!" Yes, I yelled. A few people were around me and I yelled at my kid. He looked at me with his cute, sheepish grin. "Gavin! Get over here now!!" He started hesitantly coming back, still wearing that darn grin of his. "Now", pointing to the floor next to me. He started running more back to me and I knelt down to see him. And, lo and behold, I surprised myself by crying. I hadn't realized how scared I was. I just held him tight, rubbing his back, crying. "You can't do that to me! You have to stay close to mommy! I was worried about you! I'm so glad you are back." His reply: "I love you". Oh, you little boy. After that I picked him up and plopped him in the back of the cart. "NO!" You better believe you get the cart treatment after you run away. I hope that is the last time that happens, but I highly doubt it. Three rambunctious little boys... it'll happen again.