baby ran away

I don't want to brag, but my daughter is fantastic.  She is polite, cute, funny, and very caring.  However, she is 2.5 years old.  This comes with some definite trials.  Her newest and scariest thing is running away.  We will be having a fantastic time at the library, store, playground, church, wherever and all of a sudden a little switch turns off in her head and she takes off.  She gets about 50 feet and then turns around to look.  I know she hears my blood curdling yells but they seem to have no effect on her.  I have tried everything short of a leash, because of my serious moral objections.  I have told how I feel scared, mad, etc., I have yelled, I have taken her home immediately, I have turned around and ignored.  NOTHING WORKED.  Last night, after a particular rousing time at choir, she ran away from me down the hall.  When I got her, I told her that since she ran away, her baby ran away too.  She looked at me skeptically and then began to whimper a little.  She walked with me to the car and when we got in, Daddy had already removed baby.  The sound of her scream literally made people turn in the parking lot.  She was TERRIFIED.  She kept asking where she went including a confusing, "is she in the closet?"  What?  Anyway, we talked about how scared she was and with tears rolling down her cheeks she said, "I'm sorry Mommy, I love you."  Baby magically appeared and A. uttered an audible sigh of relief.  Maybe, just maybe, it will curb the running or maybe, my child will just keep baby even closer and run away with her.  We'll see.

thoughts of parents

B. and I have been together since 1993.  Since that time, our conversations have obviously changed.  When we first started dating we would spend hours on the phone together.  I have no idea what we talked about, probably my love for Joey Lawrence, B's promising varsity basketball career, and who kissed who in the back hallway by Mrs. Colgan's algebra class.  In college we would talk for 20 minutes a day b/c our long distance bills were $.10 per minute and $2.00/ day is a lot for college kids.  Our conversations were about classes, sororities, parties, and other sophisticated matters.  I do believe there was atleast some time in our adult life where we talked about religion, politics, current events etc.  Now that we have kids, we talk a lot about  poop, temper tantrums, and the fresh beat band.  Last night, after a wonderful Easter with family that went by in a blur of cooking, feeding K., and chasing a little girl who ate entirely too many jelly beans, we were both feeling exhausted on our trip home.  Awas watching some nursery rhyme video on her TV in the back seat when the 5 little monkeys song came on.  I asked B, "do you think the book or the song came first?" Well, this stemmed an entire conversation on if someone heard the song and then wrote all of the kids books which then led to games, toys etc.  Can you just take a song by someone else and then make it your own book and make millions?  If its allowed, we're taking the itsy bitsy spider.  If that spider can climb up a water spout, a very difficult feat, then imagine the places that spider can go.

I don't think those teenagers ever would have expected 20 minute conversations on the places a little spider could travel...