Ted Tracking

This morning I had a knock at the front door. It was bad timing as Bea and G had just been having an argument and I'd sent them upstairs to cool off. The knocking became insistent and was accompanied by the words 'mummy' so I glanced over at the door and discovered that the person at the door, was in fact, Ted.

It turns out that when Bea and G were getting in the milk together this morning Ted snuck out the front door in his Ben 10 outfit and no shoes and socks. Apparantly Bea told me that he had run out but I clearly didn't hear her and what perplexes me more is that she saw me shut the front door behind them because of the cold. She just shrugged when I quizzed her - clearly still annoyed by her argument with G. Anyway, I had assumed Ted was in front of the TV with his Cheerios which is where I park him in the morning so that I can do the packed lunches, fill in forms, do the dishwasher, get dressed etc etc. I cannot tell you the shock I got to discover that he had actually been roaming the streets with cold feet. It must have only been about ten minutes or so, but still that is a very long time for an unaccompanied two year old. I still can't get over the shock. The memory of Ted's arms banging on the door and yelling Mummy will stay with me forever.

It was the start of a morning of him running off. I took him to Dulwich Park to unleash his energetic side with miles and miles of unadulterated scootering fun, but upon identifying that there was no trouble to be had with the scooter he dumped it and set off on foot in to the thick bushes and brambles, knowing that I wouldn't bother coming after him. We did get moving every now and again but then he'd dive off into another bush. After an hour or so I did actually hide from him to see if he would at any point become bothered that he couldn't see me and he did, but not scared enough to stop doing it. So I abandoned the park trip and took him to extort money from his father. The good news is that the morning's excitement has tired him out sufficiently and he is finally asleep during the day after 48 hours of no day-time sleep.  I have never been more relieved.

I am going to go and may hay while the sun shines now. I am going to google toddler tracking gadgets now. I wonder if I can fit him with a chip like you can with dogs? I will let you know. x