Almost every child likes drawing and Mason is no exception. Laura bought him a Garfield coloring book and a box of crayons a few weeks ago and Mason loves drawing in it. When he got it, he had to make sure that every page had some kind of crayon related marking. This was quite a feat since there are at least fifty pages in the book which kept Mason entertained for hours at a time. He only took coloring breaks long enough to sit down in my chair with Monkey and watch Curious George on PBS. That was all fine and good for a couple of days until he ran out of ‘clean’ pages. Even both covers, inside and out, had some kind of crayon scribbling.
Earlier this week while I am at work, I get a message from Laura around noon that we have an artist in the house. That was all the information that she provided and I wasn’t really sure how to take the news. I just assumed that he had colored a page out of his book that he was especially proud of and Laura had hung it on the fridge. My assumption was almost right…
After my long day at work, I walk into the kitchen and see no artwork on the refrigerator. As I walk past the deep freeze, I notice something green on the front. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was crayon! That must have been what Laura was talking about in her message earlier that day. OK, not a big deal, crayon is washable and there is not that much on the freezer.
For anyone that has seen the comedy movie “Daddy Day Care
bathroom and said “I missed”. Slowly looking around in horror, I came to understand the extent of Laura’s message. I could almost hear the “Psycho” music in my head, ‘reee…reee…reee’. It looked like every crayon had exploded all over the walls!! As I continue to look around, I see that there is crayon on EVERY wall, the table (top and bottom), all three windows, all the wood work, the back of each dining room chair, both sides of the door that leads to the office, the light switch, the thermostat and several of his toys. With that kind of damage to the dining room, my next thought was what does the living room look like. Well, in that room, he colored on both end tables, the coffee table, my recliner, all the windows, the entertainment center including the glass and the TV. About the only thing Mason didn’t color was the dog, and yes, I checked! I could do nothing but laugh when Mason came up to me, put his arm out and proudly said “TA-DAAA”! He could not have been happier with himself.
After letting everything sink in, Laura said she wanted to show me what he was most proud of. IS THAT INK?!? Where the heck did he come up with an ink pen? Then Laura said softly “look closer, there are three colors, blue, black and purple”. We still cannot find the ink pens that he had used. In addition to all that, throughout the course of the day, Mason learned that the air coming out of the heater vents in the floor is warm enough to melt crayons. Apparently, it was great fun to set a crayon on the vent and watch it drip into the duct. He had a full, productive day.
Needless to say that Laura and I had a heck of a mess to clean up. However, Laura found a great way to clean up crayon and ink pen. It is a product called Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
