The Mystery of the Green Mouth

Ever had a "DUH!" moment? You know...one of those times when you just have to laugh at yourself? If so, you will appreciate...The Mystery of the Green Mouth!

Yesterday Aaron worked out of town and my parents and I were home with the kiddos. As my dad was feeding Grace Cheetos (yes, her Papa lets the junk food flow freely), we noticed that her whole mouth and tongue were green. There was some green around the outside of her lips and her teeth were even green. Now Grace is a curious little thing and her favorite way to really explore things is with her mouth. This was an ugly, army green though (not the color of anything that was actually edible) and we feared she had gotten into something she shouldn't have. The search began to figure out what mystery object she had tasted. We searched high and low. She had just gotten up from a nap, so I searched her crib for a torn stuffed animal or a stray marker she might have smuggled in in her diaper. Nothing! We searched the entire house, every single place she'd been after waking from her nap and even re-traced a path she made through the yard during a quick escape. Nothing! During the whole process I kept asking Grace "now Gracie, WHAT did you eat?" She grinned and giggled and pointed to her mouth (not exactly the clue I was looking for!) After about half an hour of searching to no avail, we called off the search. Grace seemed to feel fine and we decided we'd watch her closely for the rest of the afternoon and call poison control if we noticed anything unusual. Luckily, she had no ill effects and by the time Aaron got home, there were so many other things going on, I forgot to even mention it to him.

Fast forward to tonight...

Aaron was in the kitchen and I was in the living room and we were having a conversation. He came in and opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out at me and I'll be darned if it wasn't that same yucky harmful substance looking green! "Oh Oh Oh...How did you do that?" I asked. "Uh, do what?" he said. "Make your mouth green like that!" He returned to the kitchen and brought out a bag....a bag of Cheetos. Be sure to read the fine print (ok maybe it's not so fine...let me re-phrase that...be sure to read the huge green banner across the top of the bag)....
So...mystery solved. I showed the bag to my parents and we all felt pretty dumb (but we all got a really good laugh out of it!) In my defense, I hadn't even seen the bag when the whole thing started. Mom had just picked up what she thought was an ordinary bag of Cheetos at the grocery store and dad had given Grace what he thought were ordinary Cheetos. The thought never ever entered my mind that it could have been the Cheetos. With the mystery solved though, I will rest better tonight . Ahhh, adventures in Toddlerhood!