Tar Baby

This morning bright and early, workers were at our next door neighbor's house laying down a fresh coat of driveway sealant. As usual, they had erected some cones with rope between them at the end of the driveway so no one could enter and ruin the finish. Andy didn't have to go into work as early this morning so he decided to enjoy the cool morning air and give our lawn a badly-needed mow. He just avoided the sideyard near the neighbor's driveway so he wouldn't get the lawnmower or grass clippings in the sealant.

When Ben woke up, he went outside to see Andy. I followed closely behind, and when I got to the backyard, was shocked to discover that Ben was covered in black from shoulder to ankle on one side of his body. Andy hadn't seen him do it, but apparently he had stepped on the driveway and slipped on the black goo.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with driveway sealant, it's basically liquefied tar. We were worried that it would burn his skin so I immediately scooped him up and bundled him inside into the bathtub where I spent 10 minutes furiously scrubbing him down. Thankfully, the tar hadn't had a chance to dry so it came off fairly easily. Ben wasn't too concerned about it all, just sad that it got his new Cars underwear and pirate pajama shirt dirty. If you're wondering, yes, we let our kid play outside in just undies and a t-shirt. Judge, if you must.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures to accompany this story because of the hasty action we took to avert a crisis. It was really quite funny once we realized he wasn't going to lose half of his skin. When I asked him how it happened, he said, "Daddy told me to be careful. Then I slipped."