Another Liah story

Liah is my wanderer. She is a free spirit by nature and tends to do whatever the moment moves her to do without a lot of forethought. If she wants to feel the wind whip her hair, she'll head on an around the block bike ride...no helmet...in her pajamas (without telling me). If she wants to go see Grandma, nothing will stand in her way, unless Grandma's asleep and the door is locked.

On average lately, we have had at least one major scare a week when it has come to her and thinking she's been abducted or something. Major scare is constituted by Bryan breaking into a run to look for her and Mom imagining talking to the police describing her little 5 year old and hoping she can remember what she was wearing that day. There are about 5 homes she frequents, and she tends to be fearful outside of her comfort zone which is the square block our house sits on, so that helps narrow our search area.

She is very stealth-like too. One minute she can be talking to you, the next minute, you don't even notice she has left the room. She uses this tactic in sacrament meeting too when the meeting is getting too long for her little attention span and/or bladder to handle.

We have tried to learn from each episode and to issue consequences accordingly. One time, we found her asleep in Aeden's closet...no idea why after searching for close to 20 minutes. So then we learned from that experience to check all the closets before we freak out. She didn't get in trouble for that one...she's really cute when she's sleeping.

Another time, we found her at the very top of Grandma's treehouse with a bunch of teenagers who I am sure she was trying to impress not only with her monkey-like skills at getting up so high, but also her in-depth knowledge of 6 episodes of Hannah Montana. Bryan actually went and looked for her at Grandma's, but she wasn't ready to leave when he came calling for her, so when he called, she stayed quiet and just didn't answer. If you have seen the treehouse, you'll understand why he didn't see her when he looked up. So now he makes it a point to climb part way to make sure to see her. This one scared us, and Bryan's Mom, pretty bad (Alex and Danelle were even around so they were driving around looking for her too), so we came down hard on her. I made her stay in her room the ENTIRE day (I brought her breakfast and lunch in her room, and escorted her to her bathroom breaks). It was torture (for me probably more than her)...but I did it! I really thought it would never happen again since it was such a miserable experience for her. Naivity, gotta love it ;)

Yesterday, Drez, this cute little boy that's her age, called to her over the fence to come look at his chickens. She dutifully obeyed. Then they of course HAD to play. By the time I realized she wasn't where I had left her, Bryan, Zerin and I fanned out to check all of the "normal" places. Zerin came up with the idea to go to "chicken boy's" house (that's what they call this little boy in a rather endearing way, though I'm not sure he enjoys it). He found her, and ran home to tell us she was on her way. Bryan and I spent the next 2 minutes plotting our punishment. She showed up, wondering what all the fuss was about, and simply explained in her eye-bulging, hand gesturing teenager sort of way that it would have been rude to not go see Drez's chickens. Bryan spent a good 15 seconds reaming her with verbal force, and then retreated to the kitchen with me to laugh out of sight and earshot from her. He then assured me he had let her have it good so further punishments would not be necessary :)

I am coming to realize, that yes, my 5 year old IS smarter than me, and if this were a game of Survivor, I would not outlast, outwit, or outplay her. I imagine where we will be with her in ten years with my current strategies, and I shudder. So I'm trying a new approach. Just not quite sure what that approach is yet, but I'll let you know :)