Aidan Gave Me Quite a Scare

Yesterday I took the kids with me to Fresh Market where they were having a lot of awesome sales. They had helium balloons everywhere for the kids so each of mine had one tied to their wrists. At the checkout, I lost sight of Aidan for a second (he refuses to sit in the cart...because, you know...he's two and has a mind of his own). Then I saw this little red balloon bobbing on the other side of the checkout and made a comment to the cashier about how it helps that I can just look for that little balloon and find him. She laughed and said, "that's true, it does help." Then I looked down to slide my card and put in my pin and saw the receipt printing out. Then I looked up for Aidan and the red balloon...and he was gone! I did a 360 degree turn and nothing! I started getting nervous because the doors were right by the registers which open automatically. I ran outside real quick to make sure that he wasn't about to get hit by a car. Then I called his name and couldn't see him, so I ran back in the store and asked the cashier to page over the store for everyone to help look for a little boy with a red balloon. She did, so I ran back outside to double check that he wasn't out there anywhere. I still couldn't see him, and when I called his name I didn't hear anything in return. I ran back in the store and asked if they'd found him yet. She said, "No." That's when my heart really started pounding...all the worst-case scenarios for a mom started to quickly go through my head like, "maybe he really is outside, and I can't find him and he's going to get hit by a car unless I do! And, what if someone took him!" I was praying so hard that I would find him. I was about 30 seconds away from calling the police when an employee at the store said she thought she'd heard something about the pharmacy and pointed the way. I started jogging that way when I saw a group of about 10 employees headed my way...and a little boy with a red balloon. I almost cried. Aidan just looked up at me and said, "Hi Mom" not afraid at all. This kid has no stranger anxiety. Aidan came up to me and gave me a hug and then looked at the people who helped find him and pointed to my shoulder and nodded his head and said, "Mom." I'm guessing they asked Aidan where his Mom was, and he was telling them, this is Mom. Oh, that scared me so bad. He's just so little and it was sooooo scary to have lost him even for that short time. I'm so glad he's safe!