Today at the Farmer's Market, Michael and Edwin went produce-hunting while I searched for food.  (I don't have many cravings, but this one Cambodian "pancake" dish is more of a habitual favorite of mine which I can only find pretty much at the Farmer's Market...  Plus I got homemade ice cream, "Dennis' Ice Cream", and we 3 ended up eating lunch with Dennis himself!!!)  Anyhow, while Michael and Edwin were off at Sabol's, Edwin managed to grab an entire handfull of potatoes while he was attached on Micahel's back in the Ergo.  I guess since Michael is short, this is a problem when he bends over!!!  Michael thought he retrieved all the stolen potatoes, but alas, while we were eating, this random half-eaten potato flies through the air and lands beside us.  At first I thought there must be a squirrel in the tree we were sitting under!  But I said, "A potato!!!" and Michael said, "Edwin!!!!!"  Heheheheh...  Mr. Sabol said we could keep it now that Edwin had munched it. hehehe..but we bought more food from him after that anyhow...

Friday night, we went out to eat.  While waiting for a table at the Thai place on the Commons, we let Edwin (and Michael) play in this play-area nearby.  We ran into this man who had his own kids and a friend's kids.  His son, Miles, and Miles' friend Sophia were born on the same day, and they're about a year older than Edwin.   We got to talking about kids and what they can do at what age, and I asked him what they can do now that they couldn't a year ago.  He replied, "Just watch them... you'll get an idea." Well, unfortunately, the demonstration didn't go too well.  Within less than a 30 second window, Sophia decided to go look for her mom, and unbeknownst to any of us had started actually RUNNING away from the play area.  When he realized she was missing, he had to grab Miles and start running around looking for her, but not knowing what direction.  Since he went one way, I ran the other way, leaving Edwin with Michael.  A man asked if I was looking for a girl in a purple dress, and I had forgotten what color she was wearing, but he said she went running "that way".  So I yelled for Miles' dad and we all started running off in that direction, hoping that was the right way.  The mother appeared as we were running and yelling "Sophia".  She said, "Don't tell me you can't find her!" And right then we basically all arrived at Sophia at roughly the same time.  Since she was found, I started walking back to the play area.  She had run all the way to the OTHER end of the Commons by herself! I heard Miles' father tell Sophia's mother, "I just got distracted talking to this lady for 30 seconds and she disappeared!"  I felt so bad.  I felt so lucky.   I felt so lucky on behalf of Sophia.

I know kids are safer than we think they are when they get lost like that, because I saw a kid get lost in a mall once.  Adults rally around lost children and make sure they get back to their parents.  But, of course, nothing helps when you have kids running around in the streets!  Sophia had almost made it off the Commons and into the roads.  And, nothing, nothing, nothing, can make you feel better about having had a lapse of attention while a child under your care runs off.  I really wonder if Sophia's mom will let Sophia play with Miles again...