Monday, June 6, 2011

Who says markers are for paper?

Friday, ABC and I "ran by" our favorite bouncy place, Bouncing Angels, to chat with our friend Stella for a minute. We ended up staying for 8 hours. :)

At some point during this marathon, the boys were drawing me pictures(that I was not allowed to see until they were finished) and realized that since they did not wear a super hero costumes, they should just draw their own on.

Meaning, they markered themselves silly.

Now what I was doing during this, you may be asking yourself. I was working on a VERY cool project that Stella and I are organizing together, details to be announced soon. :)

At one point, Stella told me, "You might want to see this."

So I went to take a peek. As I look over the counter, Collin was drawing circles around his face.

Time froze for a minute as I debated. What do I do, yell, cry, be angry?

Nope...I laughed.

And it was a good thing I did, or I never would have seen what followed.  They were SO full of pride in what they had created. For the rest of the day I heard all about "Seaman Waveman" and their superpowers.

If I had yelled would I have found out that Seaman Waveman can ride on waves to rescue children who need help?

Probably not.

Now don't think that we didn't talk about drawing on ourselves. They know this, but sometimes a four year old(or three) needs to express himself in a way that paper can't let him yet. And that's okay. It washes off eventually.(They weren't washable markers so it might take a bit longer.)

The thing is, the marker will fade from their bodies in days, but how long would it take for my anger to fade from their souls.

So I praise them for their creativity and gently talk to them about not writing on ourselves unless we ask Mommy first. I think that mark will stay on their soul longer and it's a mark that I'm proud of.

And it made for great conversation at the birthday party we attended the following day! :)

I know you want to see the finished product, it's coming, keep in mind that they are exhausted in these pics after a long day. Lex looks angry, but his eyes were closed the first time so I asked him to open them and got this, lol. I didn't have enough charge to take the pics when it happened, so this was right before the bath. Also, please forgive the messiness of my house, we are exploding toys right now...

And NOW...presenting "SEAMAN WAVEMAN(S)"...