The Morning Peanut Butter

All right, who loves peanut butter? I do!

I love peanut butter anything - peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter cookies and cake, peanut butter milkshakes (oh yeah), peanut butter on a spoon...

Today I learned, however, that I do not like peanut butter in hair.

I woke up this morning (slightly later than intended but bright-eyed) and set the girls down at the table with bowls of cereal. I made myself a cup of tea and sat down at the table in my bathrobe, ready to wake up to a nice hot cuppa. I didn't yet have my contacts in or my glasses on but did notice Lolly's hair was a mess. This is no surprise though, as my Bohemian Earth Child always has wild, tangled hair.

While she was eating, Lolly said to me, "I need a haircut." This was a strange thing to hear her say, but I just brushed it off (haha, no pun intended). A few minutes later, as I walked past her, I absently caressed her hair as I passed by and felt a huge tangle.

"Oh Lolly, we're going to really need to brush your hair out today."

"I need a haircut, Mummy."

And that's when I saw it - a huge wad of chewing gum matted up in her long, gorgeous hair.

As it turns out, Fifi had found (?) a single piece of chewing gum on her bedroom floor (?) during the night and had given it to Lolly to chew (?). Lolly fell asleep, and ta da! the gum ended up in hair. (I was reminded of my favourite childhood book, Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day - "I went to sleep with gum in my mouth, and now there's gum in my hair.")

Fifi asked me, "Are you going to cut it out, Mummy?"

"No," I replied. Instead, I went to the cupboard and pulled out the jar of peanut butter.

As you can imagine, the girls were incredibly intrigued. Lolly thought I was going to make her eat it. When they discovered I was going to put it in her hair, they were astounded.

To be honest, I kinda was too.

My mom used to use peanut butter to get gum out of my hair, and it worked, but I mean, who came up with the idea? Hmm... there is chewing gum in my hair. Perhaps if I put ... oh... some... I don't know, some peanut butter in it, it'll dissolve and come right out!

Well it did, but it was an unpleasant experience. The smell was very strange, coming from hair, the gum dissolving in the peanut oil was an awful texture, and long strands of hair inevitably pulled out with it as I worked my fingers through the tangle, the gum and the peanut butter. Lolly was exceptionally patient while I went through this process, but it was rather unpleasant for me.

I then bunged her in the shower and washed all the peanut butter out. Again, the smell of peanut butter in the shower just didn't work for me. And the more hair pulled I out while working through the concoction, the more my fingers got wrapped up in a peanut buttery, gummy, hairy mess.

All before 7am. This was not how I expected to spend my morning. Or my peanut butter.

Needless to say, my tea was cold by the time I went back to it, but I emerged with a sense of Mummy Pride, a sense of having won a rite of passage to motherhood, having dealt with my first (of probably many) gum-in-the-hair experience.

I'm officially MOMed now.