Code Yellow

One of my biggest fears actually happened today, and while I had always dreaded this moment, I knew it would happen someday. We were in Target (Tyler, Blake and myself) doing some Christmas shopping, and I had already caught Tyler wandering off twice. I was browsing in the book/DVD section when I turned around and, once again, Tyler was gone. SOOO frustrating!!!! I looked the next aisle over, then the next, and the next, and the next.... no Tyler! There were tons of people there too, which made it even worse! Then I quickly sped up my pace as I ran over to the toy (Star Wars) area, and again, no Tyler. As I'm yelling his name at this point, I start panicking, thinking the worst. Then I thought, "Oh my God, what if he walked outside?!?" I ran over to the customer service area (since they were sans security guard at that moment) and told them my son was missing. The girl quickly piped up on the walkie-talkie and announced, "Code yellow, code yellow!" Oh my gosh, how embarrassing. She asked me what he was wearing, which she, again, announced over the walkie-talkie and I swear about 10 seconds later, she said they found him. And where was he you ask? "Ma'am, he's in the very back, in the Star Wars toy section." Of course he is. And not just the toy section- the LAST aisle of toys section! I proceed to run to the back with a bunch of merchandise on my stroller, only to find about 10 Target employees surrounding Tyler. As my eyes start to well up, I can't decide if I want to hug him or kill him. And of course all the workers were like, "He is SO cute!" Yah, a cute 'wander-off-to-the-Star-Wars-section-by-himself' kid!! I was mortified, embarrassed, relieved and raging mad all at the same time. But, I have to say, I was very impressed with the swiftness of all the Target employees. I wonder if they've done that before?? Just another reason to say Target is still my favorite store! Another day in the life of a busy mom...