A Sticky Mess

It is our habit when we go Sam’s Club or Walmart to get Elijah a gumball out of the machine when we're done if he’s a good boy while we are shopping. He always hopes for a Mover Blue one but takes what comes out anyway. We’ve never had an issue with him chewing gum…other than reminding him not to chew with his mouth open. He always gnaws it to death and then throws it away. No problem…until last weekend.

I happened to walk across our dining room after a trip to the store and got a sticky feeling on my toe. To my surprise, it was a piece of his gum from that day. I peeled it off, threw it away and went to find the boy. After a scolding, he promised never again. He said it fell out of his mouth and he “forgot” to pick it up. Ok, no biggie. The only piece that was on the carpet was the one that attached itself to my foot. No damage done.

It wasn’t until later on that night at bath time that my daughter found the rest of his wad. In his hair. Thick-as-a-girl’s hair which needed cut badly. We tried combing it out after shampooing. Then peanut butter. Then butter. All we needed was bread for an Elijah PB sandwich. A friend suggested vegetable oil. Nothing doing. It was stuck to his scalp. Out came my clippers.

Now cutting Elijah’s hair is like trying to…well, let’s just say the boy can’t sit still for anything. He wiggles. He looks up. He looks down. He jumps. He shrugs. I’ve been cutting his hair for almost a year now because I can’t see paying $15 plus tip to get an uneven cut due to the aforementioned movement. I can give him an uneven cut for free. Actually, I do a pretty good job with my professional clipper/razor unit. I’ve even learned to move in time with his gyrations.

Anyway, back to the gum debacle. He had it ground in to the roots. I tried cutting it out. It just left gaping holes. So I trimmed, we considered, I trimmed some more. He wiggled and jiggled. But to get it all out, I finally had to put on my smallest attachment and more or less shave him almost bald. But the gum is out. And now he looks something like this. Actually he looks just like this…

 

He keeps rubbing his head and saying mournfully “I’m ba-old”. Poor honey.

When the boy does something, he does it all the way. Even if it's something like smashing gum into his scalp. At least his hair will grow back and as fast as his grows, I’ll be getting the clippers out again in no time. As for his gum chewing career? We’ll be sticking to apples as a bribe for a while.