Nicki Ran Away

Well, today started out like any other... not much drama -- in fact, it started out pretty well, actually! But then, I asked Nicki to play in her room because we have a busy week ahead of us and wanted to make sure she'd have the chance to play. Little did I know, but that was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back. She announced she was running away! I told her that if she felt she needed to do it, then go ahead. We would miss her and all, but we still love her and understand. We even called Grandma Charron to let her know that Nicki wouldn't be living here anymore. She could not be deterred. She had her things packed (Purple, of course, some books and toys) and said she had to go. I suggested that she go in the backyard but she said that that wasn't 'alone enough', so she had to 'go out into nature'.

So, she discussed things like 'how would I go pee?' and 'what if I have to go #2?'. At one point, she was teary-eyed and said, 'Where will I live? I don't have a job to buy a home!' 'What will I eat?' All of these things she apparently had figured out in her mind and decided to go anyways... I asked her about Dr. Clayton's appointment tomorrow and she said, 'well, what time do we have to leave?' I told her about 8:30-9:00 A.M., so she said she'd be back home by
7:00 A.M.! She felt that she still needed to go for some undetermined amount of time because she was so 'fed up' with all the rules-- so, I asked her for one last picture before she went to remember her by... and out the door she went!

So, I walked out with her and asked for a kiss and then I went across the street to get the mail. She stopped in the driveway for a while, asking herself out loud, 'which way should I go?'. Then, she took off down the street, heading North, for somewhere... anywhere, but here, apparently!
And so, I crossed back to our house and stood out in the driveway watching her go down the street... she passed 1 house and then stopped. The 2nd house's garage door was open and she just stood there looking at it and then once they closed it, she continued on her journey. So, she then passed the second house and was about to pass the driveway for the 3rd house when I called out to her to go no further. She stopped right there and set up her 'camp'! She then turned around and yelled back to me, 'You can go ahead and go in now! Why are you still out here?!' So, I reluctantly went inside, got my camera, and locked the front door. I came out through the garage and took a picture of her setting up camp. (The picture to the left.) Then I walked down and helped her carry her things back home and told her we were running away together, to which she quickly replied, 'I don't want to run away WITH you!!' But I told her to get in the car.

By this time, I'd had had enough of this business. We drove around for a while to talk -- running away from everything... just getting out of the house and talking about things. I told her that running away does NOT solve your problems... Of course, she is 5 years old, so that did little good. She said she wanted 'alone time', so I told her that if she wanted alone time, that all she needs to do is say, 'Mom, I'm going into my room for some alone time' and that that would be fine! She finally agreed to that, so I asked her if she was done running away and she said, 'no'. So, I told her that lunch was only for people that live at our house, so then she agreed to have a 'trial version' (her words) of the bedroom alone time, but wouldn't run away -- for today at least.

What a day.... what a day! I can't wait for what else parenthood has in store for us! :-)