Banana Shampoo

I got a call right before Yali and I were supposed to leave for his 7:30AM Physical Therapy appointment.

“Your physical therapist just called and she has the stomach flu.”

Not exactly an expected call, especially only in the late summer. But this meant Yali and I suddenly didn’t have plans for the morning. Instead, I walked into the kitchen to find him smearing banana through his hair like shampoo. I had just dunked him in the bubble bath last night and wasn’t about to do it again before I had to. So I rinsed it out at the sink, fully aware that undertones of banana would remain throughout the day.

So Yali and I picked up a few late-week groceries from Dierberg’s, including more bananas. As we waited in the check-out, Yali was gifted a hot pink sticker from the checker. The sticker was still being used after dinner. Yali knows how to wear out a sticker until there’s no more sticker to use.

By the afternoon, Essence of Banana had taken a stronger hold in Yali’s black head of hair. In fact, it had managed to keep it sculpted pretty nicely throughout the morning, without aid of a comb. Who knew raw banana made such great hair product?

We waited in the brick hallway at school for Puck to walk out from the gym. After commandeering his younger brother – always the first matter of business – he handed me a small card that he had clearly painstakingly written during Geography.

“Here, Mom. Hold this carefully for me. It’s my ID tag for Snicky’s and my club.”

I turned it over. It read: “Toilet”.

I had another evening at home with the boys while Oxbear joined old friends for a football fantasy draft at Buffalo Wild Wings. Oxbear and fantasy football go together like bananas and Yali’s hair. They stick because it’s good to see old friends, but as for naming a single active quarterback in the NFL, Oxbear’s sunk. I would be too.