From Head to Toe

Aaron rushed into my bathroom this morning as I was fixing my hair.  He just had to tell me that he had gotten a new bottle of body wash out of his bathroom cabinet.  "Mom!  I got some new shampoo and look at what color it is!"   It was a lime green and Aaron, who notices everything about everything (except for people's reactions to HIM!) thought that this color was quite funny.

He laughed as he asked, "So why do I want green shampoo on my head?  Won't I look like grass?!"

We both laughed as I assured him that he would not look like grass, and off he thumped to take his shower.  Aaron is very aware of his hair and his skin and his teeth and his nails and his toes and whatever else.  Every bump and scrape and sensation is often an object of discussion...........whether we want to hear it or not.  Believe me, we often do NOT!!

Aaron knows that he is getting a bald spot on top of his head.  The other night he asked, "Am I bald?"  I told him that he is not totally bald and he added, "So am I bald on part of my head?"  Yep, Aaron - you are becoming bald on part of your head.  He's not too sure that this is acceptable.

He likes the fact that he has a mustache, though, and a goatee.  Just this morning he said, "I like this!"  I looked over to see him pointing to his mustache - and then began the discussion he always has about not wanting to cut it, with me explaining why he needs to keep it trimmed.  We actually let him grow a mustache and goatee because he does NOT like shaving, so at least this helps a little in that area.

He's very curious about why he sometimes wakes up with a stiff elbow.  I've told him that at times we sleep in the same position and so something like our elbow will get stiff and tired from not moving for a long time.  One morning he got up and told me that his elbow wasn't just sore, but that it was really sore.  "Mom, my elbow hurt in my sleep.  It was a lot worse than those other tired positions."

I've also told him not to wake me up at night for just any little ache and pain, as he used to do.  Major stuff, yes........but not a sore elbow, for instance.  A couple weeks ago, when he had a bloody finger from a hangnail repair gone wrong, he talked and talked about it.  "Mom, I had some pulled skin.  Maybe I broke the feeling part of my skin."

If any of you think you can explain the concept of not breaking the feeling part of your skin, then I would love to hear from you.  Anyway, I assured Aaron that he was fine.  He then asked me, "Would you mind if I called you during the night for loose skin?"

I affirmed that yes, I would mind if he called me during the night for loose skin..........unless it was a huge area of loose skin, like his whole torso.  Then I had to explain torso.

He likes to sit in our leather chair while he watches TV, and often will have one or both legs folded underneath him.  Yesterday he was trying to unwind himself from this position as he got up from the chair, and soon he said, "Mom, the side of my legs make a weird sound!  The skin is stuck to the leather!"

I tell him not to fold his legs underneath that way, knowing that he will continue to sit that way and that he will continue to be amazed at how his skin sticks to the leather.  And I imagine there is something else that he continues to do, but I refuse to ask.  A long time ago he informed us that he saw some hairs growing on his chest............and so he pulled them out.  Yes, he pulled them out!

The last time that I ventured to ask him about that, he confirmed that he was still pulling out the random hairs that he found growing on his chest.  To Aaron, hair should not be growing on his chest.  Maybe it's all the times in our 6 years of living in Europe that we saw very hairy men with no shirts on..............and our kids would yell, "Ooohhhh!!  Grossy Men!!!!"

Or maybe he just wants his chest to match the part of his head that is bald.  I don't ask anymore.