Our first day of 80 degree weather this year actually landed on a weekend day. What a miracle. The kids were in shorts, riding their bikes, and having fun with the water from the hose. As the evening progresses, the weather turns to thunderstorm conditions. Nothing out of the normal considering this is Wisconsin. We were inside watching a movie when the tornado alarm goes off. Understand that the tornado horn is actually located at the park across the street from our house. This makes the sound extremely loud so it always scares the kids, even when the practice alarm goes off every Saturday at noon, except it wasn't Saturday and it wasn't noon.
Dad jumps up and says lets head downstairs. The girls jump off the couch. I start gathering water bottles to take downstairs with us. Suddenly the front door opens and slams shut. Child #1 starts screaming (And I mean screaming) Child #2's name. I head for the door yelling at Child #2 to get back in the house. Because Child #1 is screaming so loud she can't hear me. I open the door trying to get past Child #1 to run after Child #2. All I see is this little body running faster than I've ever seen her run before toward the street. I finally got out the door yelling at her to stop. Before I got off the porch, she stopped at the edge of the street and turns around to look at me just as a large pick up truck passes by. I had a heart attack. She could've been hit by that truck. She came back into the house and we all went downstairs.
To child #2's credit, the school has been emphasizing fire drills. Apparently they need to start practicing the tornado drills too.
The funny thing is Child #2 was so focused when she was running, but had no concern for anything other than herself. At least, she knew what to do for a fire drill. It is interesting to see how my children react in a stressful situation.
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