Gabe and the Spitting

The other day, I walk in from the gym just as Ryan says, in a loud, incredulous voice, "Gabe! What did you just do?" Gabe, in the raspy, gulpy voice he gets when he's worried about being in trouble says, "Um. Nothing." Ryan says, in a more loud, yet equally incredulous voice, "Gabe!! Did you just SPIT on the carpet?!" Gabe, really raspy and gulpy, replies, "Uh. Yeah?"

(The culprit, refusing to pose in a hilarious What Me? pose for this post. What a baby.)

Okay, seriously. My 8 year old just hawked a lugy on the floor. (I've been to Dave Barry's blog and checked on the proper spelling and terminology of both hawked and lugy, so I can hang with the little boys now).

I'm imagining puddles of spit in various stages of drying all over the house (Ryan mentioned to me later that he thought he saw him do it earlier that morning, but didn't think it could possibly be true, until he heard/saw it again). I'm planning on never going barefoot again. And Faith will certainly never touch her pristine little tummy to Gabe's "augmented" carpet again.

Okay, but this is the thing:

HE DID IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS DAD. His really neat, overly-concerned-with-taking-good-care-of-our-things dad. He was, literally, 3 feet away from him, in the same room. Which leads me to believe

HE DIDN'T THINK IT WAS WRONG!

Guess what? This falls into the category of Stuff I Didn't Think I Needed To Explain To My Children Because It's That Obvious. We've never had a FHE on Not Leaving Your Saliva Around Our House. We've never felt it was necessary to remind our progeny, "Hey. In case you were thinking of copiously drooling into the rug, don't." Have you?

Sadly, this category (Stuff I Didn't Think I Needed To Explain To My Children Because It's That Obvious) is shrinking for me. As I have more children and more years with them, I realize there is apparently very little that actually falls into that category.

Don't cut your own clothes with scissors while they are on your body? Not in that Category.


Don't put pennies into the car CD player? Not in that Category.


Don't put hot glue on your finger? Not in that Category.

So, Readers, if I'm more absent than normal from my blog...it's because I'm doing lots and lots of explaining. It appears we haven't been doing enough of that lately. I'd appreciate any ideas of things I should make sure that I explain. I wouldn't want to forget one.