It Takes A Lot of…Something!

Everyone, parent or not, knows what it’s like to be completely crazed on busy days when activities, errands, and other obligations run back-to-back. Our family experiences this more often than we’d like, unfortunately, but for now it can’t be helped because we’re at the mercy of the teenage type of schedule.

Tonight we had a Freshman/Sophomore lacrosse game. (Don’t ask how it went.) (Okay, you probably just figured out how it went, so never mind.) Luckily our home field is at the elementary school in our neighborhood, so I walked down the block and back home when there was a little more than one minute on the clock, to preheat the oven for some delicious frozen pizzas. I would normally make a five- or six- course gourmet meal, you know, but we had a scout meeting very shortly thereafter.

Jim and the younger boy came home after the coach had his post-game chat with the team, and the younger boy ran upstairs immediately to take a shower. I assumed that I had reminded him about the scout meeting (doubtful, really), or that he had remembered on his own (more likely), and it was important for him to be there because they were holding elections for Senior Patrol Leader.

The shower kept running for several minutes (not like when his brother showers, though), and just when I was getting ready to put his pizza on a paper plate so he could eat it in the car, it occurred to me that he might not have realized he was GOING to the scout meeting.

I went upstairs and yelled through the door, “Are you just about done? We have to leave soon!”

“WHAT? WHERE ARE WE GOING?”

Uh-oh.

I told/reminded him about the meeting, and he accelerated the rest of the getting ready process. I felt bad, because he was all ready to perform our family’s favorite ritual, The Donning of the Jammies. That would have to wait, however, because he had some voting to do.

He ran downstairs, grabbed his plate of pizza, and we drove down the street to pick up his best friend and troop mate. As he ate his dinner, he kept shaking his head around, trying to get his hair to fall into place just exactly where he wanted it to, but it wasn’t working. After he put his empty paper plate on the floor near his feet, he messed with his hair a little bit as we were all talking, and suddenly I saw, out of the corner of my eye, something really weird.

He licked the entire palm of his right hand and then used it to smooth down an entire section of oatmeal raisin cookie-scented hair.

I happened to be stopped at a traffic light during this rather strange occurrence, and I turned to him and said, “Did you just LICK your hand?”

His best friend guffawed from the back seat.

I turned around and said, “Did you see that, M?”

“Yep!”

Talking to the younger boy again, I said, laughingly, “What are you, a LION or something?”

My son said, “Yeah, I did it. So what? It takes a lot of work to look as good as I do!”

“A lot of saliva?” I asked, snickering.

I have to admit, his hair did look good…

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©2010 Suburban Scrawl

11 Comments

  • Tara

    LOL! My boys have been known to spend longer than their sister's in the bathroom perfecting their hair.

    I haven't seen them use saliva, YET. Will have to watch out for it!

  • Sue

    I might of just licked my hair instead of my hand, just to enjoy the bath products taste. If it smells like cookies, it tastes like cookies, right?
    I love the "donning of the jammies" time of day!!

  • nycgirl0501

    Wait isn't this a common mom thing to lick your palm to fix their hair. He beat you too it 🙂

    I have a scary memory of my mom trying something like that as I stopped her with, "What the heck are you doing woman?" LOL

  • LceeL

    I wonder if your youngest knows my #2 son or something – it's like he's taken lessons from him. Annie says that #2 is as close as she got to having a girl.

  • Lindz

    I'm just impressed that your kids shower after games! So many of our students skip that ritual, it's nasty.

  • Michelle

    Oh yeah, we've had those days. Sorry today wasn't a better day for you. Tomorrow. I hope!

    And ummm who hasn't been using the Busybodies calendar? 😉

  • Otter Thomas

    I got caught doing that to Braden's hair recently much to my wifes surprise. She didn't approve.