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Today was our last day at the beach.
We moved from playing in the surf to going out pretty far past the breaking waves. I had to jump holding Max over my head when the big waves came. The only part he didn’t like was the occasional mouthful of saltwater. We had fun.
We went on another walk on the beach, but he insisted that we hold him. And he was falling asleep in Clarissa’s arms, so we left the beach and went shopping.
He slept in the car for an hour or so while we packed and cleaned ourselves up and drove across town, so we thought he was rested enough to bring him into the stores with us. We take shifts when we do this. One of us shops while the other keeps Max out of trouble.
When it was my turn to watch Max in Banana Republic (they’ve been having a pretty big sale this past week), I chased him around the store and kept him from pulling clothes off the rack and bothering other shoppers.
He was super hyper, and I don’t know why. He busted outside and almost made it to the street twice. And he knocked a few piles of discounted V-neck sweaters on the floor. He went behind the sales counter and tried to get into dressing rooms. And he almost pulled some window displays down.
But I blame Banana Republic for what happened next.
They had these expensive-looking sunglasses on display in a short-edged box on a little table about two feet off the ground. Right there in the middle of the room where everybody would see them. Why would they do that?
Max reached out his hand and pointed. And he looked at me like he wanted to grab a pair and I told him the sunglasses weren’t for him. So he swatted the box off the table and the sunglasses scattered across the floor. And before I could grab them all he jumped on one like a fumbled football and held on as hard as he could. He guarded it under his body and wouldn’t let go.
It took me at least 30 seconds to pry them away from him, maybe a minute, and I’m certain I bent the frame pulling it out of his fingers. And a sales associate was watching the whole thing.
So I quickly piled all the sunglasses back in the box while he pulled a spread-eagle, fists-and-feet-pounding-the-floor temper tantrum. We left the store as fast we could and waited outside around the corner until Clarissa finished shopping.
It was awful (I got some cool shirts for work, though).
We were in Charleston, and Clarissa has business meetings there this week, so she stayed behind while Max and I drove the three hours back to Charlotte. That ride was pretty awful, too.
He never slept. But he did bitch and scream a lot.
I have no idea where his energy came from. Our plan was to wear him out at the beach so I’d get a nice ride home.
Doesn’t matter — we’re home and he’s asleep now. And I think he owes me a good night tonight.
