I’m thankful

This morning I watered our grass, like I do every morning at the butt crack of dawn.  I have to go out the front door because we have the back yard lawn cordoned off like a police crime scene, only tighter.  We have a snow fence and all the lawn furniture on their sides near the bottoms of the temporary fence.  All to keep the dog out.  It turns out the snow fence really keeps Chanel off the grass not the dog.  He likes to sit on the grass and mock me as I walk around the house.

As I’m watering the grass and thinking about the long, long day ahead, a small hand touches me and makes me yelp.  Jacob is standing next to me.  The only way he could be in the back yard is if he teleported.  I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have magical powers. More likely he walked out the front door and around the house.  The thought gives me a mini heart attack. I have lots of those.

I ask him where Nathaniel is.  He’s suddenly struck mute.

I hear Marshall and Michael arguing in the kitchen.  I ask them where Nathanael is.  They ignore me.  I ask with a little more snap in my voice.  They mumble they don’t know.  My heart drops to the pit of my stomach.

I know he couldn’t be missing for more than five minutes.  He was in his bed when I started watering.  I hadn’t been in the back yard long.

We go looking in the house.

My neighbor brings my two-year-old, clad only in a diaper, at 7:00 am home.  He was standing in front of our house.  If only I would have walked back around the house, not knocking over the snow fence to get in the back door to look for my baby.

I’m thankful we don’t live on a busier street.  I’m thankful our neighbor recognized him.  I’m thankful she brought him home instead of driving off to work.  I’m thankful he’s home.

Dave went to Babies R Us and bought lots of door locks and baby proofing gear.  I’m sure though, it’ll be like our dog.  The babies will be outside mocking me while I try to squeeze the knob, press the button, and clap three times, all in vain to open the door.

If that happens, I’m buying a door alarm.  When the door opens it will screech bloody murder.  Our neighbors will hate us, but no one will be wandering the streets.  Well, except for the hookers, drug users, and zombies.*

We don’t live in the kind of neighborhood with hookers, drug users, and zombies.  How cool would that be though, zombies wandering the neighborhood eating hookers and druggies brains.  It would be like free entertainment out your window.  And we’d be safe inside because we couldn’t figure out the door knob lock.