I'm starting to worry a little bit about this recurring question. ;) Victoria and Sissy were nice enough to come back down after babysitting during the Med-City Marathon a couple weeks ago to do it again during our anniversary so that we could go away for the night! Major milestone as our kids have never been away from both of us for an entire night. Well Sissy brought out one of the old tricks they used on all of use when we were kids...

'I'm gonna call the police if...' I still remember these threats when I was little and the terror they caused me lol. I don't remember if I've had any conversations about police with Josh or not. I know we've gone to firestations and he loves them...I know I've told them firemen and policemen are nice...but what I told him about 'jail' might have been what has caused his paranoia.

I'm probably wrong but I think Josh has a pretty good grasp of what 'forever' means. And I don't remember the context of the conversation but I know I told him someone was going to jail forever or maybe he or I would go forever if we did something...So I know 'jail' scares him...he was reduced to a crying mess in Morris once when one of his uncles playfully said Josh was going to jail.

Well the Aney Aunt's didn't let up either, using the classic 'pick up the phone and start dialing' saying that they are calling the cops if Josh doesn't do something they want and of course at the site of this, Josh comes sprinting towards them like a bat out of hell ready to do whatever it took to convince them not to make that call! I can only imagine the humor they saw in this (as I probably would too).

When Ann and I got home from our anniversary trip, Josh waited until Victoria and Sissy were gone to inform me that they had to call the cops four times! As if to say, 'I don't know how I made it through the weekend without ending up in jail...forever' I like how he waited to tell me until they were gone too...probably scared that the mention of cops might make them pick up the phone or something and start dialing.

Well last night, Josh and I went to Home Depot and Menard's to look at some storage sheds...he had gotten a hold of a circle piece of cardboard at Home Depot and was playing with it as we drove to Menard's. Our new car has windows that go down in the back so Josh is experiencing his first few rides with an open window right next to him. Of course he thought it was the greatest to hold the cardboard out the window. I told him to not hold it out the window, knowing that he'd sooner or later drop it and he replied with his practically rhetorical 'for?' as in 'What for?'. I say practically rhetorical because no matter how I answer this question, I'll get a 'for?' reply again, over and over. It's almost making me cringe thinking about it. Well, anyway, I told him the truth, not really trying to scare him, 'Because the cops will get mad if you through garbage out the window and we'll have to go to jail'. Josh quickly brought the cardboard cirlce more inside the car but was still playing with it.

A few blocks from Menard's, the cardboard slipped out of his hands, flew up, bonked him in the face causing him to close his eyes for a moment and not realize that it fell to the floor inside the car. However, Josh thought it flew out the window and immediately froze in terror and had the guiltiest look on his face as he looked at me in the rear view mirror trying to read my facial expressions. Being the expert poker player that I am, ha, I didn't give him any hints, but waited for him to act first, but Josh has been 'taught' well ;) We both sat in silence, starring at each other as we drove the last few blocks.

As I parked, I could hear sirens muffled by the music and the 'devilish' side of me came out. I told Josh that I think I hear the cops coming. His face turned ghostly white as he fought off tears, saying 'But I don't want to go to jail' over and over. As I walked to his side of the car to take him out of the car seat the sirens were conveniently getting closer and louder...Josh was looking 'worse and worse'. I swear at this point I had little devil horns growing out of my head, but I still thought this was a little entertaining...he did disobey me right?! ;) Anyway, I wasn't responding to his panicked requests, but letting him learn the 'consequences' from his actions, but after about the fifth or sixth plea that he didn't want to spend the 'rest of his life' in jail, I let him off the hook...a little bit. I said, 'Well, I can hear them getting closer, let's get inside and hope they don't find us'. It was practically like I was being pulled from a dog sled team or something, Josh trying to sprint for his freedom tugging at me with all his might.

We made it 'safe' inside but Josh was still 'troubled'. He was on perfect behavior in the store and I thought, 'Heck I might as well take advantage of the good behavior' so I didn't say anything to dismiss the fact that we were still 'fugitives'. Josh had a hold of my pant leg and didn't utter a word or attempt to steer astray during the whole trip. Riding lawn mowers and big grill displays didn't even tempt him - which usually are a required half hour 'play stop' (which I fully intended to do here, but he kept walking right past them).

So we headed back out to the car and I was waiting for him to discover the cardboard in the car and be all happy that it didn't fall out the window, but as I lifted him in, I swear he was scanning the parking lot for undercover cops or something and didn't even notice it. I buckled him up and reached down to grab the cardboard and handed it to him, expecting to see relief wash over his face, but instead it was as if I just handed him a ticking bomb and told him to diffuse it or something. I just kind of chuckled and said don't drop it out the window and walked around to my seat. I had left all the windows open an inch or two since the car is black and gets hot and as soon as I got in...

Dad, I want my window rolled up, and that one too (as he pointed to Audrey's window)...will you roll up all the windows? This is a complete 180°...usually it is a fight because I don't want to open them. After explaining that he wouldn't drop the cardboard out the windows if only open that much he started to relax again...Are cops nice? he asked. I wondered how I should answer this one...