Probably because when it happened to my sister, I thought (but didn't say), that will never happen to me. I'll be smart enough to keep Sharpies out of my child's reach! (I wasn't prego yet, so that alone explains a lot!)
Uh-huh.
You guessed it.
I was SO P-O'd that I didn't even take a picture of it. I was doing something really important, like helping a friend who was lost on her way here, trying to figure out where she was and how to get from there to here so she wasn't driving around a million acres of farmland for hours with her two year old twin boys in the back seat, one of whom has a broken leg, when I heard a sound like shrieking baboons and stomping elephants overhead. Maybe I can find a picture of a monkey with a sharpie?
.....No.
Anyhow, we figured out where she kind of was right when the racket reached its peak and I reached the top of the stairs to find N with a BLACK SHARPIE in his hand!
FREAK OUT!!!
I snatched it, hung up on my friend (who is still my friend), and discovered SHARPIE
on the kitchen cabinets
on the refrigerator
on the sliding glass door
on his shirt
on his hands
Oh. My. Gosh.
I had enough wits about me to NOT touch my child, but not enough to keep me from hollering at the top of my lungs to GET YOUR BUTTS DOWNSTAIRS and GO PLAY TOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know a wiser, calmer, gentler person would have hugged her kid, told him it was alright, the he just needs to help me clean it up. Thank goodness they are smart enough to know when I really mean it, because they scurried downstairs like whipped puppies. It's a good thing they did, too.
Because I had no idea if would come off the kitchen cabinets, which I must admit are NOT OURS. I was already wondering how much it would cost to refinish our landlord's cupboards whilst rummaging for the Magic Eraser.
The refrigerator, which I was less concerned about initially, proved to be a greater challenge and needed MUCH elbow grease and kitchen cleaner with bleach, but it did come off. While scrubbing, I called my sister to let her in on the stunt.
The shirt, I'm afraid, is a loss. It was a hand me down from who else? My sister.
Today is a new day, the sharpies are stored elsewhere, the mess is cleaned up, and the boys have lived to tell.
I'm beginning to reap what I have sown. I know I can't change the past, but I can pray that God will help me survive it when I have more coming. I guess I'll find out if I was a nice childless person or not. Yipes!
