Wednesday, September 14, 2005

in the eye of the beholder

Isn't it funny how ones person's idea of a beautiful work of art is a total disaster to someone else? Today my almost 3 yr old son thought he had created a masterpiece that could never be topped. I saw it and almost cried...
Its funny that it happened today of all days... A friend of mine had written a blog entitled "danger boy"(see proud_mum). Someone had commented that when babies become toddlers we have this silent timer inside us that makes us panic and say "where is he?"
Well that timer went off today. I realized my son had been awfully quiet for awhile, then I remembered I heard the garage door open and close. I panicked. I went running into the garage expecting to see him dead on the floor from drinking some poison or another. When I opened the door I found my son with a red sharpie marker in his hand, standing on his "potty" stool in front of his daddy's toolbox. He pointed to his artwork on the freezer and said "Look Mommy, Pretty." I couldn't help but laugh when I saw what he had done. He pointed out the different colors he had used. He was very proud of his artwork. I knew I couldn't keep laughing. I tried hiding it.I told him that I wasn't very happy with him. I immediately went inside to get the camera though.

I wasn't too worried, my best friend had had the inspiration to send me a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I had used it before when the walls had been under attack by a sharpie. I got it out and started cleaning. My son seeing me trying to clean his creation tells me "No, Mommy, NO!". But lucky for him Mr. Clean wasn't my friend/helpmeet today. I called up my inspired friend and asked her if she had any other bright ideas. i.e. cleaning product suggestions. While she tried to control her laughter she told me to just take some pictures the kids had drawn and cover it up, that my husband would never notice. Or just repaint it with the awesome stainless steel spray-paint thats become quite popular for appliances. When she was done laughing she did give me some good cleaning product names. My husband came home, walked into the house from the garage, made eye contact with me and said "oh my". I couldn't help but laugh again.
After the budding artist and his baby sister were off to dreamland, I made an emergency trip to the store to get some cleaning supplies for this disaster and to keep on hand for future emergencies. If you would like suggestions on which products worked and which ones didn't I would be happy to give you a review.

It is now bright, white and clean again. I'm sure my little picaso will be a little disappointed tomorrow when he sees that I didn't leave his artwork up a little longer.

My husband and I were talking about this after it was cleaned. We noticed his "potty" stool was out in the garage. I thought he had taken it out there, he thought I had done it. It occurred to us that like in the Shawshank Redemption this had all been pre-planned. Our "too smart for his own good" son had been planning this for at least a week. Take the stool out to the garage one day but don't do anything with it at that time. Just make sure its out there so that when the time is right his plan can be put into action...

Posted by ABQ Mom :: 9/14/2005 08:46:00 PM :: 4 Comments:

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