This weekend, I took Max for a tour of our local police station. He's been fascinated by police lately. During a recent festival in town, as we walked around Max saw an officer directing traffic and offered to help (he let him, for a bit). Whenever we're on the highway and we drive by a trooper who's stopped a car, Max says "eeece!" ("police!") and "uh-oh!" and swivels his head as we pass. If Dave is driving and speeds up to pass a car, Max warns him, "eeece!" I figured Max would be into a visit to the station, and I called ahead and arranged it.
The patrolman met us at the entryway. We checked out command central, where the dispatcher gets incoming calls and a couple of dozen screens show what's going on around town; Max and I were both mesmerized. We visited the prisoner cells, where Max informed the officer that he was a good kid. He gleefully sat in the front seat of a police car, with the lights flashing (but no siren, thankyouverymuch).
As we headed out, Max peeked into a room and saw a bunch of policemen sitting there. He opened the door and went in. They were doing roll call. "I'm Max!" Max said. The lieutenant and men said hi. "How old are you?" one asked. Max answered that he was ten but going to be eleven, and then I repeated that.
The police had to get down to business, so we headed out and down the hall. Suddenly, Max turned around, booked back to the room and dashed in. I went to grab him.
Max looked at me expectantly and said, "Arrrs ooh!" ("Cars 2!") That is his shorthand for "Let's talk about the Cars 2 talking Lightning McQueen I'm getting for my birthday!"
I looked at him. "Max, come on, we have to go!" I said. "The policemen have to do their work." Everyone was staring.
"Arrrs oooh!" said Max.
I knew what I had to do, otherwise I wasn't easily getting him out of there. And so, I turned to the roomful of policemen and said, "Max just wanted you to know that he is getting a Cars 2 talking Lightning McQueen for his birthday."
"YEAH!" said Max.
"That's great!" the officers agreed.
Then we headed out. Max made a point of picking up the phone at the entryway so he could say bye to the dispatcher.
He would like to be a police officer when he grows up, he's telling me.
