Try weird things…

Let me start with the boring part of things. Friday night dinner was Chinese take-out, we didn’t feel like cooking and this was our choice, a bit healthier than pizza or burgers. Watched movies and went to bed. Normal boring routine. Saturday was spent lounging around and watching rugby and movies.

And the chaos unfolded first quietly; like a thief in the night; and then everything crumbled almost like being hit with an explosive device. Seafood dinner, not as loved by my hubby and son (not my choice, they chose it and I cooked it, I wanted steak). My son made himself nauseous and ran off to the loo. My husband panicked and thought he was really ill, gave him medicine and hoped for the best. Bland toast for my son and left over Chinese for my husband. Somewhere in the chaos, I lost my appetite too and packed the leftover food into containers into the fridge. (Added note, nothing wrong with the food, just not what they thought it would be.)

Disinfected the bathroom and making sure it was clean, and then it was shower time. And off to bed. A little less chaotic but my son still full of energy.  Bouncing around, making jokes and playing like nothing happened. Then we noticed his tooth was extremely loose, hanging on for dear life, not willing to leave its home, but it was time. We have been asking him to wiggle it, but haven’t realised that it was that loose.

After some persuasion we finally reached an agreement to tie a string to his tooth (we were scared he might swallow it in his sleep) and he will tie it to his teddy bear and throw the bear, good plan for that moment. But we didn’t reach the end of the plan. With the string attached to his tooth on one end, and the other end in HIS hand, he started with his monkey business again and out flew the tooth within seconds. We burst out with laughter, mostly because it was funny, he didn’t get to complete his “mission” and secondly because of his shocked expression.

Then we realised it was 9:30pm and we don’t have any cash… Driving around in deserted streets 30 minutes before the France vs Springboks rugby game started, was out of the question. And another problem would be finding an ATM at this time of night. Maybe a story for another day.

We happened to have a few coins and decided the tooth fairy would give the coins. And my son was questioning the tooth fairy’s choices: “Why did she give me all these “pennies”?” It served as another laughing experience for us on Sunday morning, but then he wanted to go shopping. I told him I would take him on Monday after school. He ended up taking the money to school to spend at the tuck shop.

Before this whole spectacle, I made a deal with him to buy a “poop” toy from the supermarket if he pulls his tooth out. (He refused to remove his teeth, another long story.) He really wanted one of these toys and he wasn’t giving up, so it became the carrot to get his teeth out. I just read on the packet something about stinky as we passed by on a previous occasion, so “poop” toy became the name in our household. My husband was oblivious to what it is, we are talking about.

So-called “poop” toy is in fact a very rancid and stinky toy, they even have different smells. I told him I will take him on Monday after school to buy this toy, thinking it would be “fine”. It was actually NOT FINE. We bought the toy and then he opened this toy in the car, a little green man with an ugly looking face, but the moment he opened this toy in the car, I could smell the stench oozing out of it. I hurriedly opened the windows because I was feeling faint and nauseous.

I grabbed the paper and read his name: “Barfin Ben” smells like vomit! WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO? My son thought this is the best thing since sliced bread as he opens this toy – if you can even call it that – on our way home. I was dying of nausea, and he was dying of laughter, very pleased with himself! I couldn’t help but laugh with him as the waves of nausea hit me. Worst part of it, when you squeeze it, the odour shoots out of his mouth even more. I inspected this rancid little dude at home and saw he has “vomit” stains on his clothes and mouth painted in yellow, on his green face. Disgusting little thing, and then I realised my hands stink too after toughing it.

And then it reminded me; sometimes we have to stir things up and try weird things. This was indeed weird to a normal Monday afternoon. But sometimes we could just stick to our normal routine and avoid all the chaotic experiences.

After all; sometimes eating oats for breakfast forever might not be so bad, but jumping into something new like dancing badly, painting horribly and singing off-key, or even buying the stinky toy might just add to the adventure and start new stories.

Morals of this story: find a new carrot for the next tooth, don’t assume you know what kind of toys are out there and boys will be boys – anything stinky and poopy goes. After all, boys are made of fart noises, weird smells with dirt on them.