A month or two ago, it was our family’s turn to take home the pre-k “class book.” My husband put it on top of the car while he was loading the kids in and… you can see where this is going.

Despite him calling the school immediately, tracing his path later that night? The book was gone.

The kid’s teachers and classmates were very chill about it. “That’s disappointing, but we’ll make a new one.”

“…make?”

Because, see, the kids make the book themselves. It’s a precious one-of-a-kind deal.

Yesterday, finally, it was our turn to take the book home again. “I’ll be careful with it,” I semi-joked, because really, how hard could it be to keep track of?

You can see where this is going.

I took the toddler out for a snack, then to his sports class. On the way out of the class, I had a weird feeling that I never put the book in the car. No, it has to be there.

It wasn’t in the car.

I panicked. In doing so, I lost my keys in the car for about five minutes.

Well, it must be at the school, then. I must have left it in the classroom. What else could have happened?

And there it was, waiting for us. I’d left it twenty feet down the hall, forgotten after stopping to read the toddler a book.

So we finally got to take the book home to read it.

It was very cute.

And we got it back safely.