Where's Melia?!

So a couple of weeks ago, Bo was working late and I was putting the kids to bed by myself. While I nursed Naiya, Melia got her jammies on, brushed her teeth and then told me she was going to go to bed by herself. I told her it was ok and that I would come in to her room to say good night after I finished feeding Naiya. Well, a while later, I hear my neighbor's voice calling to me from our door. I went out there to find Melia at the door with her. She said, "Do you know where Melia was?" With a confused look on my face, I said, "Umm...was she outside?". She said, "Well, she decided to come to our house for a little visit." What?!! Ok, this is at 8:00 at night and to get to our neighbor's house you have to go all the way up a long driveway and onto the street and down another long driveway. Needless to say, this isn't a great activity for a 3 year old to be doing on her own. I'm just glad this happened while we're living in Paradise instead of in Santa Ana. Anyway, I talked to her about not going outside by herself and I resolved to not let her out of my sight at bedtime anymore.

Ok, so about a week later, I'm making breakfast in the morning and she goes upstairs to "get her shoes". When breakfast is ready, I go upstairs to get her and she is nowhere to be found again. I start to panic a little and I start calling for her outside. I hear this little voice from down the street calling back to me. What?!!! I go to get her and she is talking about something down the street. Who knows how far she went!! This time Sleeping Beauty, her Belle dress, and shoes--basically everything she values--was taken away from her for going outside by herself again. We're definitely going to have to get some good locks for the doors that she can't get out of.

Today I was in the kitchen and she went in our bedroom. A little while later, I went in there and couldn't find her. I started calling to her all through the house and she was nowhere to be found again. Panic. I went outside and started yelling for her. No answer. I came back downstairs and kept calling for her. All of a sudden, I see her peeking at me out of Naiya's room. She had been hiding in there to surprise me. We play like that sometimes, but usually I know where she's hiding immediately because she always talks to me from her hiding place. She just had to pick now when I'm paranoid to actually learn how to hide the right way. Parenthood may drive me crazy before I get out of it!