I'm Paper Too

Yes, yes...we're back from the beach, back from vacation and back to work which sucks worse than you can imagine.  Yesterday and today have been awful, not to mention I haven't been able to go to sleep at a decent hour the last couple nights so I'm dragging big time in the morning.  First night..after 3 a.m.  Second night...after 12 a.m.  Just restless with a ton of crap running through my mind.  Never-ending battle with me.  I will post pictures from our week at the beach later.  For now, I want to share something else with you.

A couple days ago after we were home, Bella comes to me saying she can't find her "smarkers", aka "markers" and wants to color with them on her coloring pad.  We look, can't find where she has put them (or where Mommy put them) so I produce a packet of markers I had put away a while back.  Give her the instructions that she is to only color on the paper, not the furniture, herself or anything else.  I hear "yes ma'am" and go crawl back in bed.  I was sick with a horrible stomach bug my sister gave me.  I've told her thank you a million times and she's said I'm sorry a million and one times.  Horribly nasty stuff.  Anyway, for 2 days Bella colors without getting smarkers on anything but the paper, a little on her fingers but that's it...until last night.  She announces after dinner she is going to color a picture for her Daddy.  Fine by me.  I have stuff to do around the house so we both go our separate ways.  A little while later, I'm in my room hanging clothes up in the closet when I hear Bella come in and say, "Mommy I can't get this off, it won't come off".  I peek around the closet door to see her holding her arm out rubbing it like crazy and find this...

A little how the conversation went from there...

Me:  oh my
Bella:  I can't get it off Mommy
Me:  I bet not.  Why did you color on yourself?
Bella: Because
Me:  Because why?  Did you eat it too?
Bella:  Uh huh
Me:  Where are you supposed to color markers?
Bella:  On paper
Me:  Are you paper too? 
Bella:  Yes
Me:  Oh wow, I had no idea.  Why did you color yourself?
Bella:  Because I had to.

We were getting nowhere so I told her to look at me and the big brown puppy dog eyes looked up with a sad face and the big bad wolf said, "Don't color on yourself again. We only color on paper.  Do you understand me?"  And the pitiful little voice said "yes ma'am".  I wasn't yelling but I was firm.  Really it was hard not to laugh but I had to be strong and fierce and let her know we don't color on ourselves even though Mommy has a tattoo on her foot and uses a permanent marker to draw a tattoo on Bella's foot all the time (thanks for that idea Neil).  You still only color on paper.
Now, it could have been much worse.  There could have been markers all over the furniture, walls, more on her but there wasn't. I'm not going to lie, after I put her in the tub I walked very slowly to the living room with one eye shut and the face you make when you know you're going to see something bad (yeah that one), but to my surprise the crime scene was clean, well except for the paper that had been colored on.  And I did find one paper that had dots all over it.  She must have been beating the heck out of the markers on paper because the tips had been shoved into the case.  I quietly gathered all of them up and tossed them in the trash. No more markers for now.  No tips! 

By the way, the markers washed off in the tub with soap and water and a little scrubbing.  Mouth was a little more difficult but after I brushed her teeth, she was all sparkles again.

Ah, the adventures with a 3-year old.  :)