•10:12 AM
When you are the third of three children, you always feel behind the others. They go to school, you do not. They get to stay up late, you do not. They can read, you cannot. And, they can chew gum ... but you are too little.
How do we know that Addie C. is too little to chew gum? Because we have tried ... and she always swallows it. The good news is that the length of time the gum is in her mouth (before swallowing it) has increased dramatically. For instance, the first time Addie C. tried gum, it remained in her mouth approximately thirty seconds before she announced it was gone. But now the time has grown to thirty minutes until we hear, "Uh-oh ... I swallowed it."
Do you remember the first time you tried gum? I don't. But I do remember my Grama giving me pieces of Juicy Fruit and Chiklits. Oh, how I love the little mutlicoloured Chiklits. I quickly graduated to bubble gum and I have very vivid memories of learning how to blow a bubble. I had the procedure down, but it took me a long time to master it. It was something that I had worked and worked on ... because I just had to do it. See? Even back then I made silly goals for myself. And I can even remember where I was when I finally did it. I also know that I could not have been more than five years old because we still lived at Rondeau Park. When I was three years old, my parents built a house there and we would live just outside the Provincial Park until I was almost six years old. Since there was only a corner store, we had to travel twenty or thirty minutes into Ridgetown for our groceries. So, on this particular day, I had twenty to thirty minutes to practice my bubble-blowing technique. In those days children did not have to sit in a car seat or a booster seat; in fact, they did not even have to wear a seat belt.
I am old, aren't I?
To tell you the truth, I probably had such a great view from the back seat because I was sitting on a case of empty beer bottles. Ha! Those were the days.
Anyhow, I can still see the road in my mind. We were just coming up to a big bend in the highway when it happened ... I blew a bubble with my bubble gum! I felt like I had really accomplished something. Something that I did all by myself, without any help from anyone.
So, when Addie C. kept bugging me for gum when "the big kids" had some, I could understand. She wanted to get it ... she wanted to learn to chew gum. And the only way to learn a skill (if that is what you want to call it) is to practice. So, every once in awhile, we give Addie C. a piece of gum and then wait to see what happens.
Last week, we gave her a piece of strawberry flavoured Bubblicious - cut in half. Because when you are a princess, you must have pink gum. And she chewed and she chewed and she chewed. In fact, she chewed for so long I finally had to force her to throw it away.
She did it! She chewed gum ... just like the big kids!! And she was so proud of herself.
"Daddy, guess what I did?" she said. Jonesy had a flash of fear go across his face because usually this question does not lead to anything good. But Addie C. continued the conversation before he really had any time to react. "I chewed gum ... for weel."
So, now every day she begs us for gum. Which is cool, but a whole new situation has arisen. She pulls the gum from her mouth, making the long string; she sticks her gum on the floor and then puts it back in her mouth; she rolls it into a ball between the palms of her hands and then puts it back into her mouth. Yesterday, she stuck it to a chair.
"Ummm ... Mommy, look at dis," Addie C. said. Again, this is not a great way to start a conversation with Addison because it usually means trouble.
"Oh," I said. "What is this? Do you know?" I used my finger to try and scrape the "stuff" off the seat of the computer chair.
"Yes," she giggles, chewing away on her strawberry flavoured Bubblicious. "Dats my gum."
"Isn't your gum in your mouth?" As if I don't already know the answer to my question.
"Yeah," she tells me. "Dats my gum and dis is my gum. I think it got stuck." She thinks it got stuck ...
Can you imagine sticking your gum to the seat of a chair ... even if it is in your own home ... and then putting it back in your mouth? Ugh.
So, I am waiting ... because I know the day will come when I am asked the question.
"Mommy, how do you blow a bubble with your gum?"
And, I will have an answer because I am an accomplished bubble gum bubble blower.
How do we know that Addie C. is too little to chew gum? Because we have tried ... and she always swallows it. The good news is that the length of time the gum is in her mouth (before swallowing it) has increased dramatically. For instance, the first time Addie C. tried gum, it remained in her mouth approximately thirty seconds before she announced it was gone. But now the time has grown to thirty minutes until we hear, "Uh-oh ... I swallowed it."
I am old, aren't I?
To tell you the truth, I probably had such a great view from the back seat because I was sitting on a case of empty beer bottles. Ha! Those were the days.
Anyhow, I can still see the road in my mind. We were just coming up to a big bend in the highway when it happened ... I blew a bubble with my bubble gum! I felt like I had really accomplished something. Something that I did all by myself, without any help from anyone.
So, when Addie C. kept bugging me for gum when "the big kids" had some, I could understand. She wanted to get it ... she wanted to learn to chew gum. And the only way to learn a skill (if that is what you want to call it) is to practice. So, every once in awhile, we give Addie C. a piece of gum and then wait to see what happens.
She did it! She chewed gum ... just like the big kids!! And she was so proud of herself.
"Daddy, guess what I did?" she said. Jonesy had a flash of fear go across his face because usually this question does not lead to anything good. But Addie C. continued the conversation before he really had any time to react. "I chewed gum ... for weel."
So, now every day she begs us for gum. Which is cool, but a whole new situation has arisen. She pulls the gum from her mouth, making the long string; she sticks her gum on the floor and then puts it back in her mouth; she rolls it into a ball between the palms of her hands and then puts it back into her mouth. Yesterday, she stuck it to a chair.
"Ummm ... Mommy, look at dis," Addie C. said. Again, this is not a great way to start a conversation with Addison because it usually means trouble.
"Oh," I said. "What is this? Do you know?" I used my finger to try and scrape the "stuff" off the seat of the computer chair.
"Yes," she giggles, chewing away on her strawberry flavoured Bubblicious. "Dats my gum."
"Isn't your gum in your mouth?" As if I don't already know the answer to my question.
"Yeah," she tells me. "Dats my gum and dis is my gum. I think it got stuck." She thinks it got stuck ...
Can you imagine sticking your gum to the seat of a chair ... even if it is in your own home ... and then putting it back in your mouth? Ugh.
So, I am waiting ... because I know the day will come when I am asked the question.
"Mommy, how do you blow a bubble with your gum?"
And, I will have an answer because I am an accomplished bubble gum bubble blower.
1 comments:
I hope you never get to the day where Addie C says, "Oh,oh Mommy---look at dis!" and you have to cut the gum out of her hair. That's one of my vivid memories. lol