Just When Everything is Quiet...

So, yesterday afternoon I thought everything was going so smoothly around the house. My two-year-old and baby were both sleeping and although my four-year-old decided she didn't want to take a nap, she was at least being quiet. I decided it was a good time to start scrapbooking again, which I hadn't done since before Kiley was born. I pulled out my album, photos, etc. and Avery noticed a package of markers that she wanted to color with. (Until now, she has only colored with the Crayola Color Wonder markers, which can only color on special paper.) I reluctanly handed her the markers and told her to be careful and to only color on the paper. Well, I started laying out my scrapbook page and about 30 minutes later, Avery came in holding her beautiful picture that she had colored, although the first thing I noticed was not what was on the paper.

Yes, she had not only used every marker color on her paper, but she had also colored all over herself as well. She had a purple streak on both cheeks, and every other color on her hands, arms, legs, and clothes. When I asked her, "Avery, why did you color all over yourself?" her simple, 4-year-old answer was, "Mom, I was just drawing a rainbow." She had also drawn a picture of our family and pointed out each one of us underneath her 'rainbow'. At first I was upset, but she was just so proud of her drawing, I had to take some pictures of her.

I'm still not sure why or how it got all over her arms and hands. But, when I went into the room where she was coloring, she had all of the markers laid out neatly in a row with all of the caps off of them. So, she may have just been rubbing against them the whole time. Although, the long purple streak on her arm and cheeks would indicate that this was not an accident.

I even told her to try and make a sad face, but she couldn't do it - this was her best effort:

So, to all you moms out there, this is probably therapeutic for you. You are probably either saying to yourself, "I'm glad that's not my kid." Or you might be saying, "I know how she feels - my kid has done the same thing." Either way, it should make you feel better about being a parent.
Luckily, the markers were washable and most of it came out of her clothes. I did have a good laught about it though and it confirmed my feelings that she is definitely not ready for "real" markers yet. Children make life so much more interesting, don't they?