Here is why I shoudn't clean with Zach home!

DH had an appointment in town today, and I decided to stay home with Zach since I am miserable with a cold and didn't feel like walking around the mall (small mall) for at least an hour with no money. Well I was working rather slowly, and just concentrating on finishing up some stuff so I can sit down again. This is what I saw when I sat down.



No, that is not washable marker! I got most of it off his face, but I only got it faded on his legs and arms. I tried everything! I used baby wipes (that worked on his face), I tried vaseline (nothing), baby oil (nothing) and vegetable oil (that work a bit on one leg). He was rather proud of his "artwork" tho. As bad as this is, it wasn't nearly as bad as the time that he found a black sharpie marker and made himself into a tiger. Yeah, that was not fun to get off. LOL.

I hate when they do that! I had to use that lava soap to get it off of Devon once!

He looks great! Did you laugh?

Baby wipes are good if you catch it immediately, otherwise I find it takes a couple baths before it fades completely. Mine does that a lot, usually sitting next to his clueless daddy. I wanna see tiger pictures! LOL

It was all I could do not to laugh. He is the type of child that if you laugh at something he does, he will not stop doing it no matter what you say. With Ceilidh, it didn't matter if you laughed or not. If you told her not to do something, she listened (that doesn't happen now tho, LOL). I laughed tho after he was asleep and I looked at the pictures. LOL.

Tara - I'll have to see if I took pictures of the tiger one. I know I took pictures, but I don't know if they are on this computer or our old one (which isn't set up, and I have no idea where it actually is).

With my oldest, all it took was to say don't do that again, too. With my youngest, not so much. I caught him drawing on the living room window with an ice cream bar and scolded him, only to catch him doing it again another day. Oh well, at least Damage Control was pretty easy.

Same here, Saige understands no. The boy..... his sole purpose is to drive me nuts.

Sometimes hairspray works to remove marker...he does look cute. It is sooo hard as a parent not to laugh when we know we shouldnt

I remember those days.....wait, that happened here last week.

Sorry, I did laugh, he is so cute!!!

Hey! Bow does that all the time! with sharpies.....

Last week he did himself and his daddy's faux suede (stainproof) brand new recliner... Its NOT black sharpie proof...

He got his face, legs, hands, and arms.

All I did was go pee.

I dont even wash him anymore. I just take him out in public like that. He is the one that looks like an idiot.

But thats the beauty of having 4 kids. You dont care or maybe you just dont have the time to care, about what they do to themselves. if they are clean, smell halfway decent, and have all the items needed, you are good to go.

I used to scrub with the first two though.. LOL

If I took Zach out in public like that, he wouldn't care. LOL. He would probably show off his artwork to everyone. LOL. I don't care about things like this, but DH gets upset. He didn't like that I couldn't get it off his legs and arms, so he was finding ways for me to get it off. I just didn't care. LOL. It will come off eventually. I compromised and got it all off his face (man Zach was not happy with all the scrubbing). I also made him get his hair washed as "punishment". He hates it when I wash his hair and since he was in the tub anyway, I made sure to do it and told him why I was washing his hair then.

Chelle - Did he get the recliner bad? Zach has coloured on our coffee table many times. We have mostly washable markers, but for whatever reason, he will always find the non-washable ones when he does it. I never managed to get the marker off my table. He never drew on the couch tho, and I wouldn't really care if he did really. Our cat pretty much has it destroyed anyway, what is some extra colour going to hurt. LOL.

Chelle, try GermX for the recliner, it usually works. Nail [olish remover sometimes works too. Goo gone as a last resort.

I told the girlies that writing on themselves would give them ink poisoning and they would DIE. So far so good.

I told Rayley that writing on herself would kill her, she always put on marker as 'makeup' so she found my permenent lipstick and did it. That REALLY doesnt come off...
LOL

I might try those Erin and Dawn, Thanks. All I tried was scrubbing bubbles, and 409. Personally I dont care. Its not my chair. LOL

And I dont even WANT to start identifying the stains on my couch... I do know the bright orange one is my fingernail polish... I still havent finished painting my toenails... LOL

Dawn, Rayley always thought she was cute when she did it too. Bow is too little to realize what he has done. He knows its wrong, he just doesnt see the 'end result'. He just 'uses' markers and such, because he see's the big kids writing. He is a copycat.

Sometimes it will hit me, With Brett or even Matt, I was a pretty laid back first time mom. I wasnt freaked out by a binky on the floor, or washing them every two minutes. But I did have some quirks. My family was more 'freakable' than me. But with Bow, its just total.... indifference I reckon. I dont care if his socks dont match, or if his shoes are dirty. I still wont let him go to town in a diaper. BUT I dont dress him at home. Rayley does. usually in HER clothes, but for me, if he is in a diaper, its less laundry.. LOL Brett and matt were fully dressed all the time. And wore PJ's. Bow hates to sleep in anything. LOL

Sunscreen takes off sharpie on the skin. Caly's on the swim team and the team writes the races she'll be in at a particular meet on their arms with a sharpie. Then after the 6-hour meet the kids use sunscreen to take it off. In fact it works so well that they have to be careful to not accidently take it off when they're just putting on sunscreen so as not to get burned.

I'm like Chelle. I just let mine stay decorated. In fact, I even have a section of the wall under my desk where Zoe's allowed to sharpie the wall.

LOL, I went through someone else's 4 babies before mine came. I was already indifferent by the first one. They write on themselves? oh well. As long as they don't stink and aren;t ruining anything, I don't much care.

I was laid back for most things with the kids. Ceilidh spent most of her time in just a diaper. If we were going out and it was summer, then I just put her in a onesi. I had soo many cute dresses for her, but I couldn't be bothered. She was fine in just a diaper. I even potty trained her by letting her be completely naked in the house (DH hated that one, LOL). Since Ceilidh goes to preschool 5 days a week, Zach gets dressed everyday. He is in clothes a lot more then Ceilidh ever was at this age.