Superman where are you?

There I was after school quite happily having a chat with Katherine while Conor rode his bike up and down this embankment with his friends. We watched them go up and down, up and down... then suddenly realised Conor wasn't there any more. Not at the playground 20 yards away, not in the little wood beyond that, not back in the school playground, not in the school....

Someone had seen him cycling across the field (300 metres to the next place he could hide - could he really get that far so quickly?) So I sprinted across there having sent Katherine to walk our normal route home and back to check that.

Phone in hand, I'd just given up and dialled 999 for the police when I heard someone calling my name: Katherine had found him half way home, quite happily riding his bike up and down another embankment. He claimed he'd felt tired and decided to go home. And I had the familiar desire to hug him and throttle him at the same time!

He'd only been missing for 15 minutes, and everyone pitched in to help search but I had that horrible horrible sinking feeling that I'm sure every parent has felt at one time or another. I'm pretty good at keeping very calm in a crisis and being organised; but the pay-off for that is that once everything's fine and the crisis is over I just go to pieces.

So that's where I am now! In pieces and not even able to opt for a glass of red wine to take the edge off!

In other news, Katherine was sworn into Brownies tonight on the beach (with her amended promise since she won't say the God bit: she refuses to be hypocritical and just say it without meaning it, which is to be lauded I suppose). She particularly loves Brownies because she gets to hang out with her best friend Lottie: they were glued together through nursery and P1 but then Lottie headed off to another school (the one Mr Smith's kids are at so quite refined, don't you know - just worked out that connection today).

Interesting that after 2 years of hardly seeing each other they are still firmly best friends. So, I guess I learn from my daughter that her legendary stubbornness also manifests itself in independent thought, strength of character and loyalty. Now there's a Brownie Code worth sticking to.