Andrew has given me a run for my money on a couple of occasions, both having to do with sporting goods stores. The most recent was on Tuesday, when Andrew and I went to Dick's Sporting Goods to do some Father's Day shopping. We picked out the present for dad, and something for Grandpa Shaffer, and then I made the mistake of walking over to the basketball section. Andrew was SO excited about all of the basketballs. I let him play with one for a minute, but he couldn't shoot baskets because the goals were covered. I was still doing a little shopping and tried to walk down another aisle but Andrew really wanted to go back to the balls. We went back, played a little and then I was ready to check out. Andrew had a different idea. He started screaming when I put the ball he had back in the bin, and only got louder as we walked away. As we got up to the registers, I found a smaller ball and gave it to him to hold. That didn't help stop the screaming and crying, so that ball went back into the bin. We stood in line waiting for the cashier, who was helping another customer. Evidently the transaction was pretty complicated, and it seemed as though nobody knew what they were doing. I'm standing there with my screaming child, waiting. I finally had enough, parked our cart to the side and took Andrew out to the exit. We had a little talk about what his behavior needed to be, and he seemed to calm down so we went back in and got in line. Of course someone had gotten in between us, and had another complicated transaction. Andrew's tantrum began again, and I tried to wait it out for about 20 seconds. I finally took Andrew and we left, with no purchases, to go to the car. I put him in his car seat and told him that if he is going to act like that we can't go to these type of places, so we were going home. He cried the entire way home, and for about 5 more minutes inside our house. I was finally able to get him to stop by having his dinner ready. In all, it was probably about 25 minutes of screaming. For basketballs.

The other event was a similar situation that happened in a golf store, and he went ballistic over the indoor driving range. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that taking Andrew around balls when we are shopping should be avoided. Lesson learned.