80 Percent Fun

 I took the girls to an aquarium and the beach this past weekend. It was about 80 percent fun; I think sleeping in the same bed as a two year old who magically morphs into a giant slug that slowly pushes you off the mattress accounts for 10 percent of fun loss. The other 10 percent was lost by losing Morgan for about three minutes.

Our hotel was right on the beach so we marched right on down to the shore. The first time was great. We found shells, put our feet in the water and called it a day. The second time, Halle plopped herself in the ocean, Morgan fell in it, and we were all so sandy and dirty that I quickly remembered why we rarely visit the sea.

Near the hotel entrance, there was a hose you could use to wash yourself off with. While I washed Halle's pants and feet, Morgan hid behind a bush. Looking up and not seeing her, I panicked and started calling her. I told Halle to stay put while I started searching the area. Some people from a balcony started yelling directions to my lost daughter. It would have been helpful had they been directing me toward the correct child. As it was, it was only irritating and distracting. Morgan popped out from behind her bush a few minutes later and asked me what was wrong. "What happened, Mommy?" I told her we were not going back to the beach for a very long time.

Morgan has done this once before; while Halle is two years older and terrible at hide-and-seek ("Mommy! You're missing a little girl! I'm over here!"), Morgan is a master at it. While my mom was visiting, we went shopping in Raleigh. Both of us thought the other adult had Morgan, and thus shopped in peace until we realized our error. We started searching for her, and then I realized if Morgan was hiding, she would never reveal her location. When we found her, she was smiling and barely containing her delight. She couldn't believe how well her trick had worked. Funny, I didn't think to threaten not taking her shopping for a very long time.