Canyon got gum in his hair. Not by sleeping with gum in his mouth the way that I did as a child, but by putting on a baseball cap that happened to have a piece of chewed up gum in it. I am not sure where the gum came from, but I have my suspicions. But, his beautiful, prized, long, golden, surfer-dude hair had been sullied by some sticky pink gum.
It was right before baseball practice, so we decided to wait until after practice to take care of it, which really gave it the opportunity set in. When I finally had the chance to examine it I found that it looked like part of the gum wrapper was actually stuck in it also. I'm not sure how that happened. When I mentioned cutting it to Canyon he said, "No, I can't cut my hair, I need it to get a date to the 5th grade dance next year!"
Whoa, slow down little man. Something major just happened (seemingly overnight) to my little boy who previously, never cared if his hair was combed, let alone whether his clothes were clean or he had food on his face. Just recently when I had commented on how neat of an eater he had become (something that I have been trying to impress upon him for years), he responded, "Yeah, I need to impress the ladies."
Wow! I knew that peer pressure can be a great way to teach children social skills, but I had no idea that his newfound interest in the opposite sex would make such a large impact. That really scares me, I mean, what else is he going to do to impress "the ladies". I guess I have to take the good with the bad here and appreciate his new sense of tidiness.
So, now I had to figure out how to avoid damaging his cherished hair. It is not easy to convince a girl-crazy 10 year-old that it is not his hair, but his great personality that will attract the ladies, as well as his great smile.
Fortunately, I had a foggy memory of my mother using peanut butter to help get the gum out (go figure, who would think of using food to remove a food-like substance anyway?). Well, it just so happened that as soon as I slathered the greasy peanut butter into his hair, like magic the gum just kind of came unstuck. It was amazing. Of course, he did have to endure some pulling and a loss of a few hairs as I ran the comb through it. But, it was all worth it to him. Hey, whatever it takes "for the ladies"
So, here we enter a new chapter of parenting. The dreaded pre-teens, and all of the hormonal forces that come with it. I concentrate really hard to think back to that time in my own past. Oh, yes, I was boy-crazy then, too. Do you like me? Check one: YES, NO, MAYBE
Welcome to my hell! If he is like his dad, he won't need much scheming to attract the ladies!
Still can't figure out how he caught you though! He must have had some serious tricks up his sleeve!
Posted by: Aunt C | June 04, 2007 at 07:13 AM