We've got a runner....

Lucy is what I would call a runner, as in, when she sees an opening, she runs. When someone comes to the front door she darts out and I end up chasing her down the street. If I let go of her hand for even one second in the grocery store parking lot she takes off and I end up chasing her like a mad women around the parking lot. Her favorite place to run is at church. I'm not sure a Sunday has gone by that I don't chase her up to the pulpit in my heels, or have to find where she's at because she has disappeared under someone elses' bench. Once, Sean actually did a full lap around the chapel trying to catch her. Well today we had Stake Conference, a parents nightmare.  I finally took her and Olive out so she could get some wiggles out. She proceeded to run two full laps around the Regional Center (for those that are not familiar with the building it has a huge round walkway around the perimeter of the building) with me chasing her, Olive on my hip. She finally found a fun wheelchair ramp that leads right back into the chairs and ran all the way across the building before I even made it out of the wheelchair ramp tunnel. Lucky for me my wonderful neighbor played defense and finally grabbed her for me. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

So I'm putting this out there on behalf of all Mom's of "runners", please, please, do not just stop and giggle as you see us chasing our children. I know it looks hilarious to see a grown women in heels and a pencil skirt with a baby in her arms try to chase a toddler running at top speeds yelling "try and get me", I get it, it's funny. It's also extremely frustrating, exhausting, and in some cases scary. At times I was barely keeping up with her, what would have happened if I lost her around a corner? There were hundreds of people in the building. Lucky for me she probably would end up on the stage so she would be easy to track down but it's a scary feeling having your child almost slip out of you reach in a crowd. I guarantee you that no Mom will be upset with anyone that slows their "runner" down, or best yet, stops them. Come on people, help a Mother out. Please!