Running Away ...

This morning Big D had apparently had enough.  Enough of what?  I'm still not quite sure.  But, being the youngest, being 3 years old and always feeling like someone is either laughing at you, purposely not playing with you, or just not feeling big enough to do what everyone else is doing couldn't possibly have anything to do with it!  It was a pretty ordinary morning.  I slept in ... not so ordinary ... so the kids had been up for awhile and we were trying to get things together to get out the door - Master S had one more day of golf camp.  Everyone was still in pj's, Master S had some homework for golf?!, there was nagging about eating, getting dressed, making beds - the usual.  There was a squabble about a balloon (my birthday balloon) between Miss Lilly and Big D, there was climbing on things that he can't get down from and then there was yelling and a 'I just need to GO! GO! GO!' which I really didn't pay attention to - bad mommy moment - and all of a sudden the front door closed, which I wasn't too concerned about because Big D will often go out the front door and sit on the front step when he has had enough of the craziness in our home.  Usually I'll give him a few and go out and talk, hold him on my lap and coax him back into the cool air conditioning.  But this time, Miss Lilly started yelling at me from upstairs -- "Mom!  Big D is walking away and he is not coming back!"

I was still in my pj's -- I walked out the front door and he was already two houses down, in his pjs, no shoes walking on the sidewalk.  I yelled, he did not respond.  I yelled louder, he did not respond.  I started walking, he started walking faster.  He made it to the stop sign before I caught up with him.  And all he could say was:
"I'm running away!'
What about lunch?
"I don't want any!"
What about bedtime?  Where will you sleep?
"I don't want any!"
What would I do without my Big D?
"I want my Daddy!"
So I picked him up, carried him home, and called his Daddy, where he recounted the whole experience to him through tears, handed the phone to me and literally dried up all the drama in a matter of a second and cheerfully said to Miss Lilly, "Let's go play!"
(figuratively throwing my hands in the air here)
Oh!  I've never had a child run away!  Seriously ... as an oldest child I'm going to really have to think a little more about what it is like to be the last one, the youngest one, the never quite big enough one.  I'm going to have to look into some child proof locks.