Day 2 - The Red Sharpie Incident

Motherhood has given me many gifts over the years. Stretch marks, C-section scars, extra fat "storage" in places I've never stored it before, the Rota Virus (but that's another post) and gray hairs. Most of all, motherhood has given me laughter. I am blessed with two funny and curious kids whose antics remind me of young kittens finding trouble. They're mostly innocent (although the conspiring whispers I sometimes hear give them away), and then I hear panicked cries for help. And like most curious kittens, it happens quickly, and without warning.

For example, two weeks ago, hubs and I visited Home Depot to look at plants, and lumber for building a raised bed for gardening. We were momentarily distracted by shiny objects in the gardening department - namely new cushions for our patio chairs. The chairs are in good shape, but after 7 years, the cushions not to much. We found one we thought we would like and brought it home for trial. It was raining that day, so we left it in the house. It rained the next day too, so we still left it in the house...where my kids found it...and decided to use it as a primary mode of transportation DOWN the steps! They were pretty sneaky about it, and amazingly quiet, until they decided to give each other pushes to make the ride faster. Only my oldest is not so good with directional pushing and the youngest is, well, young, and she collided with something (I never got a straight answer as to what it was) resulting in a mild head bump (not to worry - no bleeding, bruising or swelling). A good lecture on safety, "what if we had to take that back?" mom speech and a healthy dose of guilt, and they sat quietly, no doubt dreaming up new ways to get into trouble.

This past weekend, my son was off his ADHD medication. He is silly even when he is on meds, but he can't not be silly, deliriously silly, when he is off meds. He gets distracted every two seconds even when he tries to focus. The good news is that he is the ultimate playmate for my 5 year old daughter when he is off meds. The bad news is that he tends to get into more mischief than usual. While we were all sitting together watching TV, he left to go to the bathroom - not an event which would signal the mom alarm bells - but it should have.

He came back a few minutes later, and proudly announced that he "look(ed) just like Daddy!" and was giggling hysterically. Daddy has a full beard and a mustache at the moment. SO, my son took a red pen and drew in a nice handle bar mustache and a "beard" multiple lines running down his chin...allllll over his chin. I almost giggled until I remembered that the only red pen in the house is a Sharpie. I inquired as to what he chose to use to "look just like Daddy". He proudly held up a Sharpie, a sudden look of kitten panic crossed his face. "IS IT PERMANENT?" I confirmed it was, and he said "Will it be on there for SCHOOL TOMORROW?". I confirmed it would be. "What do I DO???". Now I admit, I was tempted to say "Stay right there while I get my camera", but knowing how embarrassed he would be the next day, and only imagining the phone call home from school, I opted to be a responsible mother and told him to go wash his face while I contemplated whether or not a Mr. Clean eraser was safe for faces. Thankfully, 10 minutes of scrubbing later, he was able to get it off of his face.

I'm still just a little sorry that I didn't capture that moment for posterity though.