A Mom's worst fear.

They say it happens to all Mom's at least once. My day was yesterday and it was the worst feeling I've experienced to date.

After church yesterday morning we (Andrew's parents, his sister, nephew, my two sisters and us) all went out for lunch. I was near the front and Andrew headed up the rear. As soon as we got our table I made a dash for the bathroom. Can't hold it very long now with a 7 month growing baby in the belly :)

I came back to the table and noticed everyone was sitting down except for JaneClaire and my sister Charity. I asked where they were and Andrew replied that they had gone to the bathroom. Next thing I knew Charity was back, but no JC. Fear like none other hit me. "WHERE is JaneClaire??" Charity said she wasn't with her...never had been. No one had seen her. I jumped up along with Andrew and his parents and started running around looking for her. My legs felt like jello. I can remember feeling like I was in slow motion, a dreamy feeling, all the noises around me were muffled. I wanted to cry and scream. I yelled for her. I could see people eating everywhere and no one seemed to pay attention. I looked for any sign of blond hair or a red gingerbread dress. After what seemed like hours I turned around and saw Rocky, Andrew's Dad, walking in from outside. He had my baby!! I ran to her and hugged her, kissed her and cried. She was crying, her nose was bleeding (I assume from being so upset)...her face told me that she had been crying for some time. Her little nose was bright red and her face and eyes were puffy. She was still wearing her coat. I asked her where she was. "I was outside sitting on the curb crying for you!!" She had never come in the restaurant with us. When we were all coming in she said that she stopped "to pick cattails". Andrew said when he and his Dad went outside they could hear her screaming for us. She told me she was sorry. So was I. How could I have let this happen? I have never misplaced my babies! I didn't want her out of my sight. After we had settled down, I took JC through the buffet line for her food. She held my arm as we walked together. "Mom, did you hear my praying?" "No, what were you praying about?" "I said, Dear God, Thank you for this day. Please help me find my Mommy and Daddy."

I cried again and kissed her. Thank you God for keeping her safe!!

Later last night as we were snuggled on the couch watching TV I asked her what she did when she noticed we were all gone. "I sat on the curb and started crying. I yelled for you but I knew to stay in one place. I was scared I would get hit by a car. People even saw me and they just stared and walked by me!!"

At pm service last night, I talked with some friends about what happened. Much to my surprise each Mom had a similar story..."I lost mine at Disney World" "I lost her at the mall" "She was missing at the bowling alley"....

JC fell asleep early last night. As I watched her, I prayed... thanking God again for keeping her safe and bringing her back to me. Anything could have happened and I had to force myself from thinking about it. I have experienced a fear greater than I could have imagined. She was only gone for a few minutes...but those minutes seemed like eternity.

Christmas Ornaments

Every year at the Lamica house we each pick out and buy a new ornament for our tree. I love going through the ornaments every year and remembering why we bought what or who picked out which ornament. A few months ago I received the Hallmark catalog with all the new Christmas ornaments. I was ecstatic to see my favorite Christmas movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" have it's own Hallmark ornament. I knew right then that would be my ornament for 2010. Last week Kendra and I went out to Hallmark to buy my ornament. I was so disappointed to find out that the Christmas Vacation ones were all sold out. Even the display had already been spoken for. I asked the sweet Hallmark store girls if the other stores had any and they told me that last time they had checked even their ornaments were sold out. Bummer! I guess I would have to choose something else. Then Kendra being the sweet sister that she is, went out and searched another store and found my ornament!! She called to ask if I still wanted it and somehow I missed her call. She went ahead and forked out the $19 and got it for me. Yay! Thank you Kenny!

I got my cool ornament and hung it on my tree. It's so awesome. Here is a picture:

Notice Silas' little pudgy hand in the picture? Well that's where my story starts. The kids loved the fact that when you pressed a tiny button on the front of the house, the ornament plays "Hallelujah" and the house lights up with little tiny lights. The morning after I hung this baby on my tree I hear "Hallelujah" playing and knew someone was playing with it. Then Silas comes walking up and says "Here Mommy! I took this off for you!" - there lying in his little hand was none other that Clark W. Griswold, missing his shoes and holding a strand of lights! Waaaaahhhhh!! I wanted to cry. I took the little man and put the ornament and him back on the tree thinking I would glue it right away. Wrong. I somehow forgot and later that day when I went to glue Mr. Griswold back to the house much to my surprise he was MIA. I think he's lost somewhere in the tree. I have looked all in the tree, shook it, checked the floor, checked the tree skirt....everything. Nope. Still no tiny Clark. How sad. I guess the ornament will always have a special story for years to come...lol.

Here she is lit up! Beautiful.

And this is where he stood. Notice the little shoes still stuck in the snow. RIP Clark.

Oh those sweet children of mine!

S - I want my sippy cup!
JC - Here you go little buddy.
Me - JaneClaire, that was so sweet of you to get brother's cup for him, thank you!
JC - And I even got him a pop-tart out of the garbage can this morning when he was hungry!

Me - What did you learn in Bible class yesterday?
Silas - God made animals, the moon, stars and gingerbread houses.

JC - Mom, the computer games are not working!!
Me - Hmm. Oh the computer screen is frozen
JC - *reaches up and touches the screen* "Mom, it's not frozen, it's not even cold!!"

JaneClaire and Silas' Poppy and Mimi bought them an early Christmas present...The Elf on the Shelf (go here if you are not familiar with it. http://www.elfontheshelf.com/home.php )


Our Elf - who JC named Twirly Whirly, appeared on Dec 1st while JC was cleaning her room. She came into the living room and he was sitting on the entertainment center. Her eyes were huge and she asked how he got there. We told her we didn't see anything and she gasped and said "it's magic!". She was extra, extra kind that night. She even picked up Silas' toys for him. At bedtime she told everyone to keep quiet and whisper because Twirly Whirly would tell Santa if anyone was loud. The next morning she woke up while I was taking a shower and said she was going to check out the living room for a minute. She came back and said "You won't believe this!! TW is on the lamp looking at me!!" haha it was hilarious. She had to show me...when I went out to look I made the statement that TW was sooo silly. She said "Mom, he isn't silly, I love that little elf! She went over and said “Twirly Whirly you aren't silly. I love your big blue eyes!!" She's been talking non-stop about him. Silas on the other hand hasn't paid much attention to him. Twirly Whirly has been moving from place to place every morning...he's been in the Christmas tree, in the stockings, hanging on the door knob, hanging on the advent calendar, sitting in the hurricane globe on the mantel. That little elf sure gets around!!

And lastly.

This past week has been very tiring for me. Silas started running a fever on Wednesday night after church and lasted until Saturday morning. I am already having problems falling asleep and staying asleep due to a growing Rossin in my belly. Silas has been keeping me up all hours of the night tossing, crying and burning up. I swear I've gotten about 5 hours of sleep total the last week. It's miserable and needless to say, Mom here has been a little on the grumpy side. My patience has been wearing thin and I knew it when...

after about the nine hundredth time of hearing "Mom, Mom, Mommy, I need this, help, Mommy, Momma, would you do this, I'm hungry, please, Mommy, I'm thirsty, I want this, I want you, hold me, Mommmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyy, Silas hit me with his purse, Mommmm!

I came into the bedroom and plopped myself on the bed and shouted. "That's it! I'm changing my name!!" - at the same time thinking "Now I know what my mom meant all those times she threatened to change her name." Mom, I love you. Thank you for not changing your name even though you probably needed it. And I now know EXACTLY what you mean!!

JC heard me and came running. "Mommy, please don't change your name! I don't want another Mommy and I love your name. I don't know what I would call you if you weren't Mommy! Maybe I would call you Candy? But I don't like Candy, I like you as Mommy!"

hahaha

And I'm back to being Mommy.