Mason's Last Day of School

Mason's class met at Fort Sherman park in CDA for their last day of school. Shannon, Jake's mom, brought a cake to celebrate their graduation from Teacher Tammy's class. It was very sweet and fun. The kids played and it was warm and beautiful. I'll always remember Mason's first birthday party at this park. :) It is hard to believe the school year is over. Time is going by so quickly these days.

Last night we had a very big scare. I called 911 because we could not find Mason anywhere. He had left to go visit Dylan, a 4 year old 3 houses down from us and when we went to go check in on him he was no where to be found. Dylan wasn't home and no one had seen Mason anywhere. It was one of those evenings where all the kids we out riding their bikes and it was unfathomable that Mason wouldn't be with them hanging out like he normally does. I very reluctantly called 911. Within minutes there were several police cars patrolling our neighborhood all the way down to Barclay's house as we thought, perhaps, he wandered over to her house. After an hour he was found by one of the police officers playing inside a house in the next cul-de-sac over from us. What a relief. The thoughts and images that went through my mind during that one hour were horrific. Barclay, Joe, Frank and I were all trying to find Mason as well as most of our neighbors and the kids who know Mason. Mason explained that since Dylan wasn't home he went over to 2 year old Mason's house, a relatively new "friend" of ours. It never occurred to me that he would go there. The fact that Mason was at her house for an hour and she never thought that I'd be worried amazed us all but I don't want to judge. I am just totally relieved. We are keeping him on a very short rope consequently as you can only imagine.

The only other time I have lost Mason was at the Atlanta airport while I was nursing Talan. I thought Mason was still playing in the kids area but he had wondered down a few gates and was apprehended by security. They gave me an earful about being responsible for my kids. That wasn't what I needed to hear. Thankfully the Post Falls police were stellar and gave Mason a warning about wandering away from home. He got to ride in a police car the short distance home. That really made an impact on him. We have talked numerous times about not getting in trouble with the police. So being put in a police car really cemented the fact that he was in trouble and had done something wrong.