Today I lost Keira in the mall.
Only for 5 minutes.
But they were the longest 5 minutes of my life.
My husband & I were having breakfast at a restaurant, my sister & her husband were joining us later. My sister asked that I meet them at the elevator, so naturally I asked my husband to keep the girls with him, but promptly had 2 children with me. We're standing outside the elevator and Keira wants to surprise them and is hiding behind my legs. Etienne phones to ask if I want scrambled eggs, yes is the answer, phone back in pocket. Turn around, Keira is no longer behind me. Ok, push down first wave of panic, she's here somewhere, she's hiding behind one of these pillars, look calmly, no Keira. Elevator opens, I announce, "I can't find Keira" and immediately the three of us start searching & calling for her. In order to understand the true seriousness of the situation, I need to describe the setup: the elevator is very close to the entrance of the mall which leads into a busy parking lot; there are escalators right next to the elevator and then there is the mass of mall she could've disappeared into. A security guard says he saw her walking 'that way' and with that I knew exactly what had happened. Doing my utmost not to cry but failing horribly, I find Keira sitting back at the restaurant with her dad. Needless to say, I was the crazy lunatic smacking her child's bottom in the middle of the restaurant with all wide eyes staring at me. I was awash with relief & cried myself to sleep imagining the endless possibilities of what exactly could have happened to my beautiful princess in the moment I said "scrambled eggs..."
