I learn something new EVERY day...

Did you know that permanent marker isn't permanent on everything?  I just found this out last week.  As you can see from the picture above, our sweet little Pete took his creative inspiration to a whole new level.  I wish this was a better picture.  It was taken after I scrubbed the black permanent ink from my son's face. As I surveyed the damage, I thought that I better grab the camera and take a shot because if we both survived the morning, it may be funny.... someday.  

Here's how the story goes....

Peter was waking up very early last week.  So, on Monday night Aaron and I decided on a plan to teach our 2 year old to keep to himself in the morning and let everyone else get a little more sleep.  Luke was sick and was sleeping on our floor.  At 5:07 am a sweet little boy came to my bedside.  I worked our plan.  I took Peter back to his room and told him to play quietly and I'd be back for him after 6am.  We knew he'd fight this.  I crawled back in bed, ready for our next move...which was going to be closing his door.  But, I heard him pull out a bucket of cars and I drifted back to sleep.  

Around 5:45am Peter came back and asked for some water.  Hardly opening my eyes, I got out of bed, stumbled downstairs, got the drink and headed back upstairs.  I thought it was odd that the kitchen light was on and one of the drawers open, but just figured Aaron had been up in the night.  Then, as I approached the boys room, the unmistakable smell hit me.....PERMANENT MARKER!  I rounded the corner to find Peter covered in marker...he colored his face, chest, both arms, legs, feet, and even his back (how'd he do that?)  Then, I looked around and saw that he had colored on both beds, both sheet sets, both duvet covers, many book covers, and the worst of the worst....the carpet.   I'll spare you the details of the discipline and skip to the part where I started Googling....how to remove permanent marker?  I found that rubbing alcohol is actually pretty amazing.  After about a total of 4-5 hours of cleaning I had saved the beds, book covers, and the duvets.  I declared the sheets a lost cause and the ink on the carpet is faded, but still a work in progress. 

That evening, I asked Peter where he got the pen?  He told me from the back of the kitchen drawer.   Then I asked him why he had drawn on the beds, etc.  He said, "I can't find paper, momma."  Oh my...a little scrap paper may have saved me a whole lot of time that day.  What a brave boy to go downstairs in the dark and dig up a pen for a little art time in his room.  

At the end of the day, once I wasn't so mad, I made the comment to Aaron that it's just "stuff."   He knew it was naughty, but no one got hurt.  I am so thankful that Luke's quilt that Mema made was in the wash that day.  And I have the permanent markers under lock-and-key these days.  

I was also reminded that as a child, I colored on the wall with a purple crayon, and when my mom said, "what are we going to do about that?" I offered to color the rest of the wall to match.  So, here I am...raising a little boy who is a whole lot like me...a little boy who thinks everything looks a little better with his mark on it.  Let's just stick to crayons!