Children and Chewing Gum

Children + chewing gum = Disgusting! I had the brilliant idea to give Andrew chewing gum in a desperate attempt to keep him from whistling. It caused such a riot that I had to give some to Lizzy too. So far both kids have swallowed their gum (as I expected from Lizzy but not Andrew). Eliz says her gum got stuck to her back tooth and made her do it. Andrew tripped and swallowed his gum in the process - too funny! I didn't consider the gum falling out of their mouths only to be put right back in. Nor did I consider the pulling on the gum and taking it out of their mouths to inspect it. I didn't consider the amount of gum that would end up on their face either. However, despite the challenges, the whistling has decreased (yep, just decreased b/c he still has managed to find a way with the gum in his mouth to squeak out a whistle every few minutes), and for that, I am so thankful. My sanity has been found...for a while at least! I'm back from a little time of running errands. The kids have been saving bottles b/c they earn $.05 for every bottle they recycle. They begged me to take them to Price Chopper (a local grocery store that has a machine where you can return bottles) so they could get return the bottles. I needed to go to the Dollar Tree to get some things, and the kids who each got $1.00 for the bottles were able to pick out one toy. They both still had their gum upon entering the Dollar Tree, but Lizzy didn't have it one the way out of the store. Turns out, she had tried out a toy that you blow into, and the chewing gum got stuck inside the toy.