4:29 p.m. - June 17, 2006
Crayon Crayon On The Wall
And the Smed family crosses another Rubicon.
It started out as a normal Saturday. I made a trip to the recycle center, and then when I got back Liz got ready to go to Indianapolis to get to Costco and Target. Meanwhile, I headed to Kroger�s with the girls for some fun, exciting shopping.
And after our trip, we ate lunch (where Kristin, I believe, first tasted the processed meaty goodness of hot dogs, at least under my watch � I had three (go ahead with the snorking)) and I put Kristin to bed.
Katie got to have some Cheez-its after lunch because she was a good eater of carrots and banana along with her hot dog, and there was promise of ice cream as a snack and some cake if she ate her veggies at dinner. So there were some clear expectations with good behavior.
Katie was watching Oswald on TiVo and when that was over she ambled upstairs where I was busy putting MySpace in order and making some simple artist mixes for Lap, when Katie went behind the guest room bed up here in the computer room.
Now I�ve noticed that she�s spent a lot of time behind the bed, but all this time, I thought she was just hiding behind there to �surprise� us all.
So I glance behind me and I notice Katie has a pencil in her hand. I take off my headphones and move toward the bed.
Immediately, Katie starts to cry.
�Don�t tell Mommy, she�ll yell at me!!!!! WAAAAAAAAH!�
Well, that�s pre-emptive behavior, so I got on the bed.
Katie has turned the wall behind the bed into her own little art gallery.
She�s got some interesting pencil drawings of cats and squiggles, and what looks like pizzas or wheels with spokes. She also has some crayon drawings of apples and perhaps strawberries.
Actually, the effort is pretty good!
We haven�t been actually the brightest about it, though. We have this basket that has pencils, crayons, etc. (and a whole bunch of stuff like bills) that we used to have on the kitchen counter, but when we last cleaned it after the family left we moved that upstairs onto the guest bed and it hasn�t moved since.
So Katie had easy access to the supplies.
Yet, she also had supplies of paper everywhere and we saw her drawing on the paper with the pencils and the crayons, so we had no idea to suspect that she was cave drawing back behind our bed!
So Katie was bawling and bawling and bawling after the discovery.
I immediately told her that no one was going to yell at her. But she knew that drawing on the walls was bad. (We have told her before not to do that and nipped a couple of potential issues in the bud back in the day.)
I also said that we had to wait until Mommy got home to decide what the punishment was going to be, but for now:
� No ice cream for a snack today
� No cake tonight
� No more Cheez-its
� No more TV
She finally calmed down, and I gave her a hug. Then we went downstairs.
When Kristin awoke from her nap, the two sisters played together while I watched the game. Katie is a really fun big sister, even if she tries to be Kristin�s policewoman. Ah, well. But every once in a while Katie would run over, in tears, saying:
�Mommy�s going to yell at me for drawing on the walls!�
I had to reassure her that Mommy was NOT going to yell at her, but we�d talk about the punishment that she should receive.
Well, about that time Liz called on her cell phone. She�d be home in about 45 minutes, so I had to tell her. Katie heard the conversation and came running up to me, with the tears welling in her eyes.
�Tell Mommy not to yell at me!�
I assured her so.
And no, Liz did not yell at her. She calmly explained how that was a bad choice and she knew better. So no bloody scenes or angst or anything like that.
Liz was just up here to survey the damage. There were no pens in use, just pencil and crayon. Hopefully, we can get it off of the walls, and Katie, for her punishment, besides the withholding of sweets for the weekend, will have to help.
But we made it almost 4 � years without a major wall drawing incident. I suppose we should count our blessings that it wasn�t magic marker, or sharpies, or pig�s blood.
