For the Love of Chocolate

Today started like any other. I woke everyone up, made breakfast, packed lunches and helped with shoes and jackets for the big kids while Chancho snuggled under four blankets on the couch. Or so I thought.

As I made the final call for Bubby and Sissy to gather their things and get out the door, I noticed that the rumpled mess of blankets no longer contained my baby big boy.

I thought that was weird, but in my haste to get the kids ready for the bus and to kiss Big A goodbye, I figured he was in the bathroom or playing with toys in his room.

I called for him once. No answer. And again. Still no answer.

I looked in his room. In the bathrooms. In the laundry room. In all the closets. All the while calling his name but getting no response.

Bubby and Sissy were beside themselves, watching me as I searched our house. I noticed Bubby dialing a number on the phone.

"I'm calling 9-1-1," he said matter-of-factly.

"We're not calling 9-1-1," I said. "He's here somewhere."

This is the point where I started to panic a little. Over the weekend, he actually snuck out of the house twice - once to check the mail on his own and another time to say goodbye to someone who was leaving. Both times, we noticed he was gone with a minute or so, but I was surprised how quickly and easily he could get out.

While I was fairly certain he didn't sneak out the door into the dark of morning, I really didn't know.

I called Big A to see if Chancho  followed him outside when he left for work. He wondered how I could lose my own son in my own house. I wondered how he could be so insensitive.

And just like that, it occured to me that Chancho could be hiding in the toybox, in the same room where I called his name no less than 10 times.

I opened the lid and sure enough, there he was, crouched down, eyes closed.

"Chancho! What are you doing in there?"

"I don't want waffles for breakfast, just this chocolate," he said as he showed me piece of chocolate in his tiny hand.

Unfortunately for Chancho, he was grounded from chocolate for the day, as well as banned from watching TV. And after I called Big A back to tell him I found our son and that he was alive and well, I drove the big kids to school because we missed the bus.

Then I came home and ate the piece of chocolate plus a few more for good measure. That will show him.