I Cannot Make This Stuff Up

You guys might remember a post that I wrote in January about GracieAnn marking all over herself?  You can read the whole thing HERE.  Just to remind you of what it looked like, though, here she is:

Gracie wasn't the first to try the whole "write all over myself with a marker thing".  Nope, Kanin beat her to that one back in 2008, when he was four.

March 2008

So I guess it should come as no surprise that Caleb had to have a turn at writing all over himself.  Of course, he is only 20 months old (in 3 days), so I guess he is a faster learner than his brother and sister.

Not only is Caleb younger than either Gracie or Kanin for his first body-marking art show but he is also more creative.  He decided to go ahead and help Mommy decorate the house.  First, he thought the hallway bathroom needed some paint.

He also did not like the stark white wooden 6 panel bathroom door.

I guess Caleb really didn't like GracieAnn's dresser, either.

Or, the playroom walls.

It looks like he was very tired of not having any pictures up ono the walls.  He found some stickers and started decorating the stairwell all by himself.

I promise you that we do actually watch our children.  The marker incident happened tonight while I was taking a bath.  Scott and Kanin are at hockey and Dora was on so I knew that I could jump in the bath really quickly and get right out.  Usually Caleb is in the bathroom with me trying to crawl into the tub but tonight he stayed out with Gracie.  That's ok because he is starting to watch TV a little more.  I yelled out to Grace after about 5 minutes,

"Gracie, what's your brother doing?"

"Writing on himself with markers." 

Well, you can believe that I jumped out of that tub in all my glory with water dripping all over the floor and carpet and sure enough, it was too late. 

"Why didn't you tell Mommy that Caleb had markers?  Or, why didn't you take them away?"

"I was watching Dora." 

That REALLY DOES explain everything.  I'm sure she was oblivious.

There was nothing else to do at that moment other than take a few pictures, put all of the markers away (again), get back in the tub and finish my bath, and worry about cleaning him up when I was finished.

I don't really understand my kids' obsession with not actually using paper to write on.  I swear that I don't just let them run around like heathens and I have no idea how they keep getting these out.  I put them up and the next thing I know, they are right back out again.

Note to all of our friends and family, though, Please, Please, Please--no more markers until all kids are at least in kindergarten!!!