HYSTERICS

We took Ashly to gymnastics and then to the Honolulu Academy of Arts yesterday. Later on we went to the mall. This is where horror began.

Ashly got Jamba juice and we looked around the mall. I saw a window display at Sephora and stopped to look at it. Ashly was drinking her juice so i wasn't holding her hand. Apparently, she walked into the store thinking I was going in. I wasn't.

I looked down and she was GONE. If you're a parent, you know how PANIC sets in. I looked all over and couldn't find her. I didn't bother to look in the store as I rarely ever bring her in (the fragrance will cause her to break out). In a state of HYSTERICS, I ran into all the adjacent stores, up and down the area. I thought for sure she was KIDNAPPED. All I kept thinking was the incident that happened last week and that I would NEVER see her again. I couldn't hear her and I looked up and down to see if someone snatched her. I called Willie who was in another store and he started looking for her. I went to customer service who called security. It was at that time that Willie called me and said he found her....in SEPHORA. She was looking at lipsticks. She was gone about 15 minutes - what seemed forever.

I asked her if she was scared and she said that she was and was calling "mommy, mommy". I told her I looked for her in the mickey mouse store and she thought that was funny. "why did you go to mickey mouse store? i was in the lipstick store.".

It's true what parents say. It only takes a few seconds. It only took me a few seconds to look at that stupid Clinique window display to distract me from watching my daughter. Next time, if she's holding something, I'm holding onto her hair.