Hug a Little Tighter

Like most Moms, I think my son is the smartest kid ever. He talks all the time, he puts together full sentences, he figures things out and has a great sense of humor. On top of that, he's so polite! He is constantly saying, "Thank you" and "You're welcome". Sometimes if he trips or something, he'll say "sorry!" like he's done something wrong. He also loves to talk on the phone, so whenever I'm talking to someone he'll ask, "Say hi?" and want to talk to the person on the line. When I was talking to Cody yesterday, Cache wanted to say 'hi' so I handed him the phone. Cache took the phone and started walking around the room (which is what I do) and he said, "Hi Daddy, how are you?"...pause...."What are you doing?"....pause..."uh huh....uh huh....I love you, bye!". He's so funny - even though he can make me crazy, little things like that are why I love him so much.


While I am proud that he is clever and smart, is able to learn new things all the time, something super scary happened today. A few weeks ago, Cache learned to open the doors in our house. He loves opening the door to the pantry in the kitchen (probably because he knows that's where I keep the snacks) and is eager to help me close a door once I have opened it. This evening, Cody and I were downstairs with Cache watching a show that Cody and I had recorded. Cache is playing with some of his toys in the Family Room, then he would run upstairs to his room and we could hear him in there singing or playing around...then he would come back down. This went on for about 45 minutes. At one point, he went upstairs and I heard him open a door. I looked up to the kitchen and saw that the pantry door was open. "Caaaaaache" I said, "Close the door, please". I heard him shut the door and then go up to his room. About 5 minutes went by...maybe 10. I realized that I hadn't heard him for a little bit, so I called out to him. He didn't answer. I listened. Nothing. I went upstairs still calling for him, he wasn't in his room or our room or the study. I started to panic and called down to Cody, "Where is he?". That's when I went to check the front door which hadn't been locked. "...Oh, no". I ran down the stairs and opened the door, bolted outside and called for him. My little blonde, barefoot son was walking towards our house on the sidewalk. I ran over and picked him up and held him so tight. I completely lost it - I bawled. I'm sure my reaction scared him, he had watery eyes and kept saying, "Don't play in the road". I took him in and Cody met us at the door. We both washed his little feet in the sink (they were pretty dirty from being outside) and Cache quickly recovered - he went back downstairs to play with his toys. I on the other hand will never forget that. I was so mad at myself for not checking on him sooner, or being more aware that I couldn't hear him. It terrifies me to think of what could have happened.

So tonight when he said to Cody and I, "Excuse me, mommy daddy? Go to bed?", I actually was more than willing to put on his pajamas and lay him down. I'm sure I hugged him a little tighter before I said goodnight...