How Many Minutes in a Can of Pam?

Well, it’s Monday again…  Being the oldest, my daughter seems to get a lot of the focus on Manic Mondays, but this one is all my son…

It was morning, and the kids were excited that Daddy was home.  The dog was going nuts, hoping someone would throw the ball for her, and since there wasn’t any snow on the ground and it wasn’t raining, I thought I’d let the kids have some “Daddy time” while I tossed the ball for a few minutes.  It seemed a harmless enough idea.

After 10 or15 minutes of making our dog happy, I came inside to hear a soft hissing sound; it was coming from the kitchen area.  The first thing I saw was my husband drinking his coffee.  “What’s that sound?”  I asked.

My husband looked confused; I don’t think he even heard it.  About the same time I asked I looked over to the corner where my son was sitting.  It didn’t take long to see the source of the hissing – a can of Pam cooking spray.  Our oldest had never been successful in removing the lid, so I had left it in the bottom cabinet, never thinking that our second would be able to (Mistake number 1).  I forget exactly what I said when I saw it, but my husband said something along the lines of, “He was being quiet, so I figured everything was okay.”  (Mistake number 2:  If it’s quiet and there are kids in the house, go investigate…)

When I took the can from my well coated son I realized that what once was a brand new can was now almost empty.  So if he started shortly after I went outside, that means there is about 10-15 minutes worth of spray in a can, if you were ever wondering… Thankfully Monkey’s fleece footie jammies soaked MOST of the spray up, but there were still some dangerous spots on the kitchen floor.  The dog was only too happy to try to help clean it up…  It took a few days and a few washings with dish soap before the kitchen floor was no longer a hazard area.

Oh, and the Pam spray?  It’s in the upper cabinet now, along with the Crisco and a few other items that could lead to another potential greased child incident.  (After all, like I tell my kids, if you’re going to make a mistake, you should learn from it, right?)