It was a game of hide-and-seek gone wrong. Though it started off okay.

Joshua was seeking. I was helping Andi hide. In s stroke of brilliance, I hid her behind the door in her room then moved the plush blue chair to a different corner than it usually sits. Joshua came in looking for her and was confused. He kept looking around the misplaced chair, so I explained to him after Andi revealed herself, “See Joshua? That chair was a distraction. I distracted you, so you wouldn’t find where her hiding place was.”

New word for Joshua – check (distraction).

Daddy looks like a genius – check.

Then it came time for Andi to seek the boys, so Joshua and I tore out across the house. I decided to hide in the pantry. Our pantry doesn’t have alot of room, however, and you actually have to step up into it. But we were playing hide and seek, so go big or go home, right?

Up I stepped.

Before I knew what was happening, Joshua had closed the door on me. Totally cramped at this point, pushed completely against a shelving unit. So cramped in fact that I couldn’t reach my arm down to get to the door knob.

And it was hot. Oh so hot.

But no problem, I thought. They would find me. And that’s when I heard it. My son’s voice urging her sister, “Andi, let’s play with the musical instruments.” And my heart started beating fast.

I spent the next 5 minutes yelling for someone to let me out. Of course, the sound was drowned out by the toy saxophone and beating drums in the living room. Finally I was able to wedge my arm down past my body and contort myself like freakin’ Houdini to open the knob. I fell out of the pantry, and Joshua came running in.

His response?

“Daddy, I distracted her! She forgot you were hiding!”

Indeed.