A Different Kind of Mess...

After dinner one night recently, while I was doing the dishes in the kitchen, the girls busied themselves in the dining room with one of their favorite activities: coloring-in on a big cardboard box with markers! (Papa Jerry sent us some oranges from Florida - they were delicious, by the way! - which are shipped in a kid-friendly-for-coloring box.) I was almost done with my washing when I heard Caroline calling out to me, saying "wait 'til you see this, Mom, it's really silly!"

Among other things, I guess this does qualify as silly! (Notice that she got her entire left hand & arm up to the elbow, and had only just got started on the right side!) See how happy she is? Well, I hated to burst her little bubble, so I didn't fuss at her immediately. As gently but firmly as possible, I told her that coloring yourself with marker was, in fact, not "silly," but rather "not allowed under any circumstances." Seeing that little face fall so suddenly when she realized that I wasn't pleased was not easy! But, between us, it was a water-based marker, so it wasn't really as bad as it looks. Just don't tell that to Caroline!