Field Trip

Today was field trip day for Sarah's preschool class. We went to the Children's Museum. It is a huge building full of all kinds of educational stations, learning experiences and nooks and crannies to hide in, behind, and under.

We got there and there was a bus parked in front. Not a good sign. We walk in and it is complete chaos. There are kids everywhere in bright, neon, colored shirts sporting what school they attended. Ours happened to be bright green, except Colin who wore his orange shirt that says appropriately, "TROUBLE" across the front.

We decided to start at the back of the museum and let the entrance part die down a bit. They were quite content running up and down stairs, going into the mock FedEx airplane and sliding down the big slide. This went on for a while and we started seeing kids making their way through already to the end, so we decided to start our tour.

Mistake number one. It was still so very crowded you couldn't step to the side, front or back without bumping into someone. Normally crowds don't bother me. This was more than a crowd though, and I had two kids full of energy and lots of things to catch their attention. I would eye one, but to do that I had to take my eyes off the other. It only took a split second.

Colin was gone. I didn't panic, at first. I knew he had to be close, it had only been a second since I had eyes on him. I looked in and out of the different exhibits, one after the other. After making a complete round I steadied myself and made a last look at where Sarah was. He usually follows her. I had a friend with me with her little boy who was watching Sarah while I looked for Colin, by the way.

I decided it was time for help. I found the nearest employee and I was ok until I had to mutter the words, "My little boy is lost." I felt a huge lump in my throat form. To his credit he immediately got on a radio and issued a "Code Purple". Oh God, my child was a code. I felt like everyone and everything was going in slow motion. My heart started beating incredibly fast and I felt like my legs just weren't moving fast enough. We both were looking, and after what seemed like an eternity, I looked up and there he was. He was in, what I can only describe as, a giant, kid sized, hamster cage. This thing went up for at least 3 stories. He was having a ball, completely unaware of the goings on below.

Anyone else think that LoJacks for kids are a good idea?