It was bound to happen sooner or later.  It’s really a rite of childhood.  So I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised when Leina came downstairs and announced she was running away.  I’m not exactly sure what prompted this decision.  From what I can make out, Kulia was in her way and wouldn’t move.  Leina decided that was the last straw and ran upstairs to pack.  She came back down with her favorite blanket, Green, lovingly wrapped around her precious Marie stuffed animal, her markers, and some blank paper.   Yup, those were her most important possessions.  She was off to face the hard world well armed with craft supplies.  When she announced her intentions, I kept my poker face intact, looked out the window and told her it was raining pretty hard so to be sure and wear her raincoat on the way out the door.  

You should have seen the devastation on her face.  I think she thought I would freak out over the idea of her leaving.  Being told to zip up her coat wasn’t, exactly, the response she was looking for.  Her lip quivered and her eyes began to water.  “But, but, Mommy!  Don’t you want me to stay?” she moaned at me.  I did my best to hide my laughter and told her of course, I wanted her to stay and that I would miss her horribly if she left.  At this, she began crying and dropped her precious bundle of art supplies and we had a nice, long hug.

During this time, Kulia figured out what was going on and she announced that she too was going to run away with Leina and off she went to grab her blanket – Patches- and some crayons because clearly, no McLaughlin child would brave a cold and wet Northwest night without some sort of drawing utensil.  Raincoat?  Optional.  Drawing supplies?  Necessity.  This set off another round of bickering as Leina announced she would never run away with a stinky baby which caused Kulia to start crying and all too soon our house was back to normal.  By the time Kevin came home the drama cloud has blown away and he admitted to me later that he was very sad to miss the whole event.  He, too, remembers fondly his own aborted attempts to run away.  Ah, don’t we all!