3.17.11: It's green

My mom thought this was funny. Emma thought this was funny. Rex thought he was clever and cute. Thanks to Shaundria for sharing the horrors of what this acutally is. That's right--green crayon all over my freshly painted wall. And this is only of the walls Rex attacked. By the time he was done, Rex had colored 3 walls in my room, the floor, my dresser, my white comforter, and his table in the kitchen. I yelled at him for the first time (that I remember/admit to).

Here's how it happened:

Until last week, Rex has never had a problem with crayons and walls. And then last week when Reagan's dad came to pick her up, he encouraged her, in front of Rex mind you, to draw on his arms. Obviously, Rex followed suit, drawing on his shirt, and then his pants and then an old blanket with marker. None of it came out. I threw his markers away and put him on time out. I thought we were done.

And then today...

Rex and I had been coloring when I gave up hope that the sun would come out and be warm enough for a run (I'm a pansy when it comes to cold-weather running) and decided to get in the shower. I left Rex coloring. When I got out of the shower, I noticed my bedroom door was closed. No big deal, Rex does this a lot by accident. I opened it and ran downstairs to check the pool times so Rex and I could go swimming. When I came back upstairs, I noticed the door was closed again, so I opened it and looked for Rex. He was lying on the floor with a crayon. And then I saw the wall. I informed Rex that he was naughty and would have to clean his mess. Then he showed me the other wall he'd graffitied. I got him a magic eraser and told him to start cleaning. He tried. Then he had to sit on my bed while I attempted to clean the crayon, but the magic eraser took the paint off the wall and Rex got off the bed. So I put Rex on time out in his room while I called my mom. She said to let Rex out, so I did.

I continued to clean with Rex playing mountain climber on me. This is when I yelled at him (Mommy is too busy cleaning up your mess to play with you right now. You have to play by yourself.) and he ran away (he knows what's good for him). I scrubbed some more.

I tried magic eraser, which removed paint.

I tried a blow dryer and dry rag, which made the paint bubble.

I tried toothpaste and a wet rag, which made my wall smell minty.

I tried baking soda and a wet rag, which also removed the paint.

I tried paint. That worked.

Next to tackle the comforter (maybe Emily can lend some of her amazing stain-removal advice).

Rex made it up to me by cuddling with me at nap time and letting me lay down with him for a bit. While he's no longer allowed unsupervised crayon use, I forgive. But it's still not funny.