Have you ever lost a child in a store?

From what I hear loosing a child in a store is common. I never thought it would happen to me because I was always cautious. I take that back.

Yesterday I met my friend Keri for coffee and Barnes and Noble, we chatted and had a good time. The kids seemed to be in a good mood, so I thought I would run next door to Kohl's. We were in and out pretty fast, I knew what I was looking for and it wasn't there.

On the way home I thought I'd go try out Gordmans. Gordmans is like a department store and our Gordmans is not in the best area of town. The kids were getting cranky so I new this would be a quick trip, so I thought. From the moment we got out of the car Taylynn was throwing a fit, I should have put her back in and left.
Once we got in the store I put Preston in the cart and I let Taylynn walk, she spent most of the time being dragged because she refused to walk with me. I don't like her walking behind me, because I am afraid someone is going to run off with her.

Taylynn would stop in her tracks and not move, I would call her to come to me and she would not. We FINALLY made our way to the toys where she completely chaned her attitude and was being sweet and kind and actually listening to me. We headed to the check out with a quick detour to look at some dresses. Taylynn has started playing hide and go seek and ran to hind in the jeans. This was in the corner of the store and no one else was around, so I was ok with it

I began calling her to go check out and I was bending down so I could see where her little feet were hiding, and could not see a thing. I began calling her and I heard her say "yes ma'ma". Too bad I can only hear out of one ear and can't tell direction.

In a moments notice I began to panic, I asked a few people if they had seen her, but no one had. I didn't want to go far from my orignal spot, but I also was the only one looking for her. If only you could have seen me walking across the store, ok it was really speed walking faster then you have ever seen.

I went from the jeans to the register, to the jeans, to the toys. And guess where I found her.........the toys. She didn't even no she was alone, probably because she heard me shouting her name all across the store. I gave her a speech and told her I was scared and she can't run off, I was almost in tears by this point. On the way out I had 5 employees ask me if that was the girl that was lost, I am glad they were looking out for her.

From now on my eyes will be glued to her even more than before. It is a scray thing to loose a child and I hope it never happeneds again.