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.
