Eddy and I were sitting on the couch in the family room when Declan casually strolled into the room and asked, "How do you get gum off your yourself?" My mother's suspicion meter rose to a eight and I instantly replied,"Why do you want to know?" Declan quickly answer, "Oh you know if one of my future children ever gets gum on them I will know what to do." Knowing Declan it seemed a plausible question; he asks a lot of questions often about imaginary scenarios. I replied, "Well you can take the gum and press it on the place with gum and it will usually come off pretty easy." Declan wandered away. About five minutes later he returned and asked, "How do you get off gum if it won't come off with the gum?" Mother's suspicious meter is now at a ten, "WHO has gum on them?"
When I was three years old, we lived in Sohren, Germany on the top floor of a really old half timbered house. I had gone to bed with gum in my mouth, apparently my mother hadn't taught me not to do that, and when I woke up my hair was stuck to my yellow pillow. A large chunk of my hair had to be cut out and my dear yellow pillowcase had to be thrown away. It was a bit traumatizing and I never went to sleep with gum in my mouth again.
Expecting the worst (gum in Zaynzley's hair), I leapt off the couch with fire crackling in my eyes, I demanded that Declan tell me who had the gum problem. Under my intense glare, Declan cracked and told me it was McCoy in the bathtub. I zoomed down the hall to find McCoy with gum all over his face and even embedded in his eyelashes. "How did this happen?" I irritatedly demanded. "I don't know?" McCoy weepingly replied.
All my children take after my sister Ashlee and can't blow bubbles with gum, weird I know, so that ruled out the blew-an-enormous-bubble-that-popped scenario. I took McCoy's gum and try pressing it into the gum on his face but his gum was so old it and about to fall apart it wouldn't remove any gum. I had Quinton quickly chew up a fresh piece of gum to try to use that to remove the gum. That didn't work either; there was to much sugar in the gum and it wasn't sticky enough to remove it. Next we tried canola oil and I was able to painstaking scrape off the gum bit by bit. I would rub a spot with the oil then scratch off the gum with my fingernail wiping it on a paper towel. That still left his eyelashes. All my boys have really long eyelashes-all the better to get gum stuck in them. I tried the best I could to clean it without pulling out his eyelashes. I managed to get most of it out but it took some time. To be fair, I never told McCoy to not put gum all over his face or to avoid getting gum in his eyelashes. Let's hope, like me he learned his lesson.
Thanks, Halloween gum for that life lesson.
Not a happy gum faced boy or mama (not pictured)
McCoy learns a life lesson
No comments:
Post a Comment