Since the premiere post for Adventures in Parenting featured my youngest son,  I thought I’d be fair and focus on my oldest son, John (affectionately called John-John), for this episode.

One night last week as we were all getting settled for bed, John was up to his usual antics, doing anything he could to avoid going to bed.  Usually this is accomplished by spending an unnecessary amount of time brushing his teeth, offering to help me with whatever I’m doing, etc.  This night was different.

John very casually mentions that he has a date the following day.  I asked John if he knew what a date was, his response was “Yes, it’s when you sit down and talk.”  Ok, crisis averted.  The “date” was with this little girl in his class,  Natalie.  He and Natalie have been friends for the past several years.

Fast forward to the next evening.  We’re driving home and I ask how his “date” went.  Here is a transcript of our exchange:

John: You have to promise not to tell Dad.

Me: Not tell Dad what?

John: (shifts uncomfortably in his seat, giggles, refuses to look me in the eye)  We kissed.

Me: (mind you, I’m driving!) Excuse me?

John: On the cheek, on the cheek!  Not the lips!

Me: And where did this take place?

John: Recess.  We were looking at the clouds, describing what we saw, and she just, you know kissed me.

Me: I see.

I spent the rest of the ten minute car ride getting after Justin for kicking my seat while chanting “John-John got kissed! John-John got kissed!”

When we get home, we all get prepped for dinner.  I’ve already mentioned the day’s “festivities” to my husband.  It’s his turn to grill talk to John about what happened.

Husband: So, I hear you had a date today.  How’d that go.

John: (Gives a very condensed version of that day’s activities)

Justin: (butting in, as is the norm) John-John got kissed!

Husband: Really?

John: (Grins)  Yes.

Husband:  So, how did that make you feel?

John: I dunno, kinda good.

Dad: So what do you like about Natalie?

John: The way she looks.  She has the perfect face, the perfect hair, and the clothes she wears are very fashion-forward (I just about died!)

We spent the rest of dinner explaining appropriate behavior at school and why one shouldn’t be kissing at school, even if it is on the cheek.

I think the Husband and I handled it all very well, given the circumstances!

What about you?  Do you  remember your first adolescent love or kiss?  Or, if you are a parent, can you recall your child’s first love?

Adventures in Parenting will be a new weekly feature here at Jenn’s Bookshelves.  The idea was formulated on Twitter (of course!) by Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog after she read my tweets about yet another fiasco one of my boys had gotten themselves involved in.  Thus, a new feature was born!

The focus of this week’s feature: Vapor Rub!

One night last week (which just happens to be the night before my in-laws were scheduled to arrive!) I was putting my boys to bed.  I went downstairs to put on a new load of laundry.  I was downstairs less than five minues when a minty-fresh odor came wafting down through the air vent.  This air vent leads right into the bedroom of my youngest son, Justin.  Justin is quite the character, always keeps us on our toes.  

After smelling this minty-fresh scent I pondered for a moment.  What on earth could that smell be?  It definitely wasn’t toothpaste.  Then it hit me: VAPOR RUB!!

I ran up the stairs and discovered Justin sitting on his bedroom floor with an empty jar of Vicks Vapor Rub next to him.  He had a mischevious smile on his face.  His hair glistened in the lamplight.  I new instantly what he’d done. 

I took him into the bathroom, undressed him, and stood him in the shower.  I scrubbed and scrubbed his head but the greasy goo just wouldn’t come out. By this time,  Justin was pretty stressed out so I sent him to his bed and logged on to Twitter to find an answer.  I asked my tweople if they new how to remove Vapor Rub from hair.  It’s water-soluable so just rinsing with water wouldn’t work.  At the same time, I googled my question.

I was able to find the remedy at eHow.com: dish soap!  The ingredients in dish soap that remove food & grease from dishes will also remove Vapor Rub from hair!

Justin and I went back into the bathroom and did another thorough cleansing of his hair using some lovely apple-scented dishsoap.  Within minutes, his hair returned to it’s normal state.  Justin continued to smell like an apple-mint combination for the next day or so, but my only other option was to cut all his hair off!

Following are pictures from that night.  While you really can’t see the Vapor Rub in his hair, his face tells it all!

Vapor Rub Head! He's trying hard not to smile for this photo!

Post dish soap! Clearly, no smiles on this face!

Check back next week for the next episode of Adventures in Parenting which will feature: Elementary School Crushes!