The Destruction Zone 4 ~ Gum Meets Hair

This past weekend I happened to be hit with food poisoning which means that I ended completely incapacitated Sunday afternoon. Which no one would think is a bad thing for the kiddles since there are three other adults in the house to watch them. What could possibly go wrong? We managed to get the family to church for our morning service, after which I fulfilled my promise to Grace & Rose of handing over half a piece of gum to each of them. This is always done reluctantly because I know that Grace is going to end up pulling hers out of her mouth and stringing it across her face, hands, shirts, etc. She just can’t keep herself from playing with gum. We get home, I retire to the bedroom (wasn’t feeling well at all), and I leave my kiddles and their gum in the care of the other adults in the house. I have learned from this mistake…no one ever remembers that there is a little one running around with gum in their mouth…or missing the gum that was previously in their mouth. I am basically completely useless for the remainder of the day and night…when bedtime comes around I basically kiss my darlings, pray with them and then say good night. The next morning is when I am hit with the realization that my little Rose has had a wad of gm in her hair the entire night…this is revealed when I go to brush her hair and instead of the mass that I thought was simply a tangle holds the comb and I see that it is indeed purple. Purple?! What did she have that was purple?? Oh, the gum that I had given to her after church. Of course, gum wad in the hair…just what I was hoping to deal with when we’re running like mad to get out of the house (and I’m still feeling ill). Typical Monday Morning. Rose follows me into the kitchen and I head to the pantry looking for my mother’s secret ingredient to battle gum wads. That weapon…Peanut Butter. Bwahahah! Yep, peanut butter. Let’s just say that there were quite a few times that my brother and I got gum stuck in our hair. The trick is to just be as patient as possible and let the oils from the peanut butter do their magic. So I start massaging the peanut butter into the wad of gum and try to work hairs out of the tangled mass as carefully as I can…each time wiping and gum that is still on the hair off onto a nearby napkin. This is a tedious task, but I’d rather do it than chop about 4 inches of hair off of my darling Rose. I have to say that I did enjoy her constantly telling me, “I so very sorry Momma. I not mean to get gum in my hair.” In the end, I now have an appreciation for my Momma’s patience in dealing with my gum issues when I was a little kiddle. She was one very patient Momma.