Cement

This is a story of drama. A story of woe. A story of tears. A story with HEROES who save the Hero Family!

To set the stage:

This morning, one of our really helpful maintenance guys knocks on our door and tells us he is fixing the cement--in the crack right at our door frame. And not to touch it because it's a beast to clean. The Friendly Hero promises him so nicely that he will never touch it, and the Peaceful Hero screams because he's mad that we're not outside. (It was one of those days that Mom couldn't do anything right and ignoring him made the screaming worse.)

Fast forward to the afternoon. We decide to go out to the playground. I lift both boys over the crack, and we head off. I get to the playground and notice that the Peaceful Hero got some cement on his foot, and rubbed it into my pants.....I decide not to care. Because this is the point of the day where enough has happened that I stop caring about everything and decide to start laughing. (When other people are close to tears due to stress and frustration, I am usually on the brink of laughing hysterically....if that doesn't make it better then I start crying.)

We had a great time at the playground. The Friendly Hero decides to ride his friend's bike home and not tell Mom. He also decides to take his favorite friend home, who is also three. I don't notice right away, because we're playing and all feeling better because we're still outside. Well, about 5 minutes later, the best friend comes back, because there is cement on her fingers. She's really upset. We find out that acetone is the best thing to take it off, from another friend who had it all over her one year old daughter yesterday. Well, about ten minutes later I go home, and I find this on my door step.

I carefully go in, and the Friendly Hero has it ALL over his hands and feet. (I didn't get pictures until they were in bed.) I don't have any acetone, so I go and borrow some from a friend. We get part of the cement off of one foot, and Friendly Hero pours acetone over his pants. Off go the pants. I go inside to rinse off the pants and notice cement on the floor, carpet, door knobs, bathroom door, bathroom floor, bathroom counter....everywhere the Friendly Hero has been. (I stop laughing hysterically and try to fight off tears.)

I come outside to tears. The Peaceful Hero dumped water all over the Friendly Hero so he takes off his sopping wet underwear. We're still on the front porch. We move to the back yard. I chase down the Peaceful Hero because he decided that he didn't want to hang around his brother after dumping water all over him. I go to ANOTHER friend's house and borrow her acetone, since we've used up the first bottle. I call the Bug Hero and tell him we have an EMERGENCY.

We go to the back yard and we are working on cleaning up the Friendly Hero. We are half way through one foot, when our Hero shows up in the form of Friendly Hero's best friend's Mom and Brother. They come armed with Non-acetone fingernail polish remover and cotton balls. They start scrubbing and it comes right off! They help the Friendly Hero clean his feet, hands and face. The Brother is 5 and surprisingly a happy, enthusiastic scrubber, he can't get enough of cleaning cement with cotton balls. I go upstairs to get the Friendly Hero some clothes, and change my pants and come downstairs to a clean carpet, floor, door knobs and all else has been taken care of.

We wash our clothes and everything is well again. We haven't used our front door yet tonight. We walk around. I hope the Cement dries soon.

Here are the light spots from the non-acetone cleaner.

The spot on the bathroom door.We're leaving it as a victory mark.

I am very grateful for Friends. This would have been very traumatizing without them to come to our rescue. As it stands, we are laughing about it. At bath time we had to use more acetone, as we found some on the Peaceful Hero's ear.

I have checked the laundry--my pants are fine and the Friendly Hero's pants survived the soaking in acetone they received. I also have eaten an entire bar of Swiss chocolate. I was saving it for a day like today when it is medicine.