Hard lessons learned

On Monday Jake, Kenny and I went to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. Kristin and Cortlen flew into town as well, it was wonderful to spend time with my family. My mom turned 50 on Monday and we took her out to dinner Tuesday night. The first lesson that I learned was my days of taking Jake out to a nice restaurant are over for the time being. We arrived in down-town Austin 1 hour before dinner. I didn't bring his stroller though. Big mistake. Kenny and I took turns holding him, he hated it! He wanted down, you know, so he could run into the traffic and break things in the stores. Typical toddler... By the time we got to dinner, he was too far gone. Jake threw such a fit that Kenny and I had to eat in shifts while the other one was outside with him. Dinner was a disaster. I'm not sure when this all happened, other then the fact he can no longer be taken to this type of setting. We used to go out to dinner all the time, so this was a shock. Now Jake is well disciplined, I'm not the parent that lets their kid run rampant, so why is this happening to me?

Kenny went home on Wednesday morning to attend a funeral and on Wednesday afternoon we had family pictures taken. At the Picture People they can print and frame the pictures right there, same day. Anyway it was taking a while and Kristin and I left the store to search for a baby gift. During that time Cortlen had called and Kristin asked him about Jake. Cortlen responded by saying he didn't have Jake with him. No big deal right? Wrong! We called my mom to check on her having Jake, no dice. WHERE WAS JAKE!!! Nobody had him, in the mall, in Austin! I immediately started sobbing and hyperventilating. My mom made me sit down, the people in the photo studio printed out pictures of Jake and called the mall security. I wish I could say that I reacted differently but I was absolutely paralyzed with fear. I sat on that stool in the store and continued to cry and think of my poor lost baby. This is a fear NO mother should ever have to experience. I thought of every terrible thing that could happen to him. I prayed like I have never prayed before! This seemed to go on forever. Then Kristin spotted him! He was walking around a few stores down... with Cortlen... It turns out Cortlen was joking about not having Jake. He asked Kristin if she ever heard to sarcasm in his voice. Let me just tell you guys that, I love my brother and I know he felt awful. He learned a valuable lesson and so did I. A mothers love runs so much deeper for her child than I ever realized.