The day we lost Clark

So last Thursday Brian was home sick and I was trying to get some things done while he was home to distract the boys. In the afternoon, while Logan was down for his nap, Clark went out in the backyard while I was working on some CE tests. Clark knows the rules of the backyard and is really good about staying in the backyard...even though we don't have a fence, so I don't really worry about him, but check on him often and always leave the windows open so I can hear him and he can call me if he needs something.

Well Clark kept bugging Brian to get shoes on and come look at some news plants in the garden that were growing. Brian decided to go out and appease his 5 year olds excitement and I asked if he would take a letter up to our mailbox to be mailed while he was out there.

Brian went out the front door, up the street to our mailbox and then came back and went into the backyard to look at the garden. After a few minutes he was back inside doing something but I didn't hear Clark with him, so I went out to the kitchen to ask Brian what Clark was doing. Brian responded that his shoes were by the back door, so he thought Clark had come in the house....since he hadn't seen him in the yard. I reminded Brian that I had made Clark switch to his boots before going out since it was muddy in all of our dirt, so he wasn't in the house. We both went out on the deck to call for Clark...figuring he was around the other side of the house or something.

When he didn't answer, Brian grabbed shoes to go up the hill behind our house while I checked inside the house just to be sure. When I didn't find him, I found shoes and joined Brian outside as he was just coming down the hill without Clark.

We split up to go different ways down our street to look and call for Clark. After 5 minutes and still no Clark, Brian want to call 911 and after a few more minutes of calling around for him on my part I finally agreed Brian could call....even though this logical brain of mine was sure it was just a puzzle I had to figure out and I would find him...I just couldn't figure out where he had gone.

While Brian was on the phone with 911, I got in the car to go drive around. As I headed out of our street and started down the big hill that leaves our street...there is Clark's little head bobbing along as he balances on the curb of the street towards the bottom of the HILL!!!!

I caught him and opened the door telling him to get in....he tells me he "still has to find Daddy"...to which I answer Daddy is at home worried about you....GET IN!

We speed up the hill back to home...with a car following me....honking in the driveway to let Brian know I found him. The neighbor from the street before ours off the main road that followed me home was coming to make sure that I had the little boy he had seen who was looking for his Dad. He filled in that Clark had walked through their street (which is a loop...with 2 entrances to the main road that our culdisac connects to) which I why I didn't see Clark when I had run up to that end of the street to look down the main road before.

We take Clark in the house and are trying to figure out what happened and how Brian missed him. Clark kept telling us that he was by the garden and then he saw Daddy walking away, but that is as far as we got before the Police officer shows up to make sure we really had found Clark and that he was ok.

Clark started crying at this point since he knew he had made a bad choice, so know he thought the police officer was here to take him away for making bad choices. :(

Anyway with what we got out of Clark and walking it outside with the officer, we figured out that Clark was starting our retaining wall by our garden waiting for Brian to come out when he saw Brian "walking away"...aka going to the mail box, so Clark went after him and totally thought he was ok breaking the rules since he was getting Dad...the problem was he kept walking determined to find Dad!

You might ask how Brian and Clark missed each other....well we were not sure either until we went outside to look with the officer and then it hit me...This truck is the problem:

Our neighbor is having landscaping done in her yard and the day we lost Clark this truck was parked much closer to our yard then in these pictures and the trailer was piled with dirt and machinery.

So though Clark broke our rule of leaving our yard, he didn't break the rule of never going in the road. We always stay on the curb on our street even when he gets the mail with Mom or Dad. So while Brian walked around the truck on his way back to our yard, Clark tiptoed down the curb between the truck and the rocks of our neighbors yard and since there was no way to see a 5 year old over this truck...especially if you aren't looking for one there...Brian and Clark crossed paths and Clark continued on walking on his mission to find Dad and bring him back to show him the new plants until Mom found him 15-20 minutes later and made him come home to some relieved parents and a brother who was still sound asleep!

Last Thursday was definitely an eventful one in our house, but all turned out well and we have a 5 year old who will not break the outside rule again...nor will he let his brother...which isn't a bad thing.