While eating dinner on the deck, our neighbor walked over with her niece. They were looking for kids to play with, but we weren't available until after dinner. (Both homes were planning to enjoy the air show and fireworks; this being our LAST.)
As the night grew darker, the little girl had asked the boys to go next door to do sparklers. I told the boys that they should stay at OUR HOUSE. The boys watched from the window and aid that it looked like she was throwing them in the air and catching them, which made us rest assured that they were MUCH SAFER at our house,
At one point, Silas and Grandpa went out with the bug jar in search of fireflies/lightening bugs. Sydney was still watching the girl from our stairway window.
All of sudden, he went outside.
I followed. Looked next door. No Sydney. Looked in our yard. No Sydney. Stood in the front yard... glancing down the street, saw him running away from our house, toward an adult and child in hand. Then, I saw him stop in his tracks, turn around and race back home. (He likely made it all the way to Lisa's rental. EEK!!!)
It was dark outside. There were A LOT of extra cars and people around.
He thought it was Grandpa and Silas. It was a complete stranger.
When he got back to our yard, I warned him how very dangerous that was and how badly that could have turned out. (We still talk about the two little girls... cousins... that were out riding their bikes and never came home.)
He begged me to lock our gate on our yard. He became nervous being outside. He wanted NOTHING to do with watching fireworks. He insisted he wanted to be by his mom. He became hysterical, despite me holding and hugging him. He wailed and cried, unable to calm himself down because it upset him to "just think about it" he reported.
We are thankful that this life lesson sank into his six year old head. We are thankful that he is more aware of his surroundings and staying in OUR YARD. We are glad he is safe.
We have watched awareness videos together of a man with a puppy convincing children to leave a playground with the stranger without asking their mom - to see his other puppies. We have talked stranger danger! We have discussed that a big person should NEVER ask a little person for help. (An attempted abduction from a local school during the school year was addressed in class at Sydney's school, but NOT at preschool for Silas, but became dinner time conversation.) We want to keep our kids safe!
For the record, he sat on my lap. I did talk him into the fireworks viewing, reminding him how much I love to watch fireworks and knowing that this was our LAST ONE in Dubuque. We also discussed that we will have to ask SIRI how fireworks were invented, wondering if it was an accidental mistake. We talked about the infrequency of BLUE fireworks. His brain geared out of fight or flight mode and back into scientific adventurer mode again.
Our house is on the market. Someone else will get to enjoy the annual air show and fireworks next year. (Hopefully, we will sell sooner rather than later!)
