Storytime at the Park

Ender and I were heading home from the park yesterday to have lunch and grab his nap. He has this thing where he needs to hold my hand and walk along the top of a rock/brick retainer wall that runs along the edge of the baseball field. It's about half a block long and ranges from ground level to about 3.5' high as it follows the slope of the sidewalk. We usually go from the end starting by the playground, down the half block and then backtrack it to our driveway.

This is how it goes every day as we leave the park.

Yesterday, for the first time in Ender history, he decides he is freaked out by it and needs to get down part way to the end, at the highest point of the wall. We were just hoopy dooping along and all of a sudden he starts to scream while doing a sort of Michael Flatley thing with his feet. I'm like 'holy shit!' and try to back up to him to piggy-back him off the wall, like usual, and he is all "NO WAY!  LET ME OFF!". Well, I'd love to but he won't let me frickin' touch him!

On top of it, he decided to do this right beside a parked car. The ONLY parked car on the block. And there is a dude sitting in the passenger seat, window half down and he's on his cell phone talking through his bluetooth. Current coordinates:  2.5 feet east of my shrieking child.

I realize that he is on a business call, can't hang up and can't roll the window up since he clearly doesn't have the keys or control of vehicle, while my kid continues to yell things like "LET GO OF ME!  I DON'T WANT YOU TO TOUCH ME!  I WANT TO GO HOME." All my best efforts to calm him have gone awry and now I'm laughing because I'm imagining the person on the other end of that phone call is writing a note that says "Call 911!  Kidnapped child!" and emphatically waving it at his assistant.

My laughing upsets Ender more, I still have no idea what caused him to freak out in the first place and decide to just throw him over my shoulder and carry him to our house.  As we near our front door he stops crying and asks if we can bake cookies. I wonder if that guy's deal went through..... /shrug