Dear Crayola,

Hey Crayola,

This:

TONS of fun.

My boys LOVED it.

But this:

It’s tiny, let’s look a little Closer:

THIS is something I’d like to talk with you about. 

Easy to clean means I spray my shower with the hand held sprayer and it’s clean.  But my shower still looked like this:

Easy to clean could even mean that I spray a little 409 on my shower, then spray it with water and it’s clean.  But my shower still looked like this:

Easy to clean definitely does not mean I spend 20 minutes on my knees with a scrubber and spray bottle of bleach.

Wait.

What’s that?

Oh, you put an asterisk at the end???

Oh, ok, sorry, my bad.

Sincerely,

CamCam’s Mommy

He’s at it again!

Shout and Bissell need to team up. 

Seriously.

Together, they’re a force to be reckoned with.  I’ve combined the power of Shout with my Bissell carpet cleaning machine a number of times.  But today it REALLY saved me.

Today I was working on chore charts for my kids.  CamCam was in the room with me.  I finally finished one of my charts and stood up to bring the laptop over to the printer.  I was about to walk over when I was distracted by a “click, click, click” noise.  I turned and that’s when I saw him.

CamCam

Standing in front of my couch. 

With a pen.

Clicking it open and shut.

Not by pushing the button.  Nope. By slamming it on my couch. 

You know that feeling when you’re aware something horrible is happening, and you know you must go over to see what it is, but you walk in slow motion as if the act of walking in slow motion will make time go backwards and undo what you’re about to see.  That’s how I walked over to my couch.  You see, my couch isn’t even a year old.  The Dada and I timidly replaced our old couch with these new ones we love.  We did so timidly because we knew we still had preschoolers in our house, and they were the ones who ruined our old couch. 

It was drawn on.  Jumped on until the springs gave out.  Ripped.  Vomited on.  Peed on.  The final straw was when my 3rd child pulled the cushions off of the couch, sat down on it to watch TV, and then peed on the couch.  Urine dripping down the inner springs, no way I could get in there. 

We actually went for quite some time without any couch whatsoever, just because we KNEW bad things would happen to our new couch.  But finally we made the plunge. 

I’ve been stressed about that couch ever since. 

And today I see this:

And this

Also this

Finally this

“No!  No no no no no no no!” I said.  Like that was going to do anything.  I froze.  I knew I needed to get to it quickly if I had any chance of getting it off.  But I didn’t know what to use.  I didn’t want to smear the ink and make it a big blue spot.  I didn’t want to use something that would ruin the color on the couch. 

I had one shot.

I tried to use just water, but that did nothing.  So I took the plunge, went and got my Shout.  I have the spray bottle kind and the gel kind with the brush in the cap.  That’s the one I went for.  Then I went and got my Bissel handheld machine. 

Just a little shout, used the brush to work it in, sprayed water on it, used the machine to work it together and then suck out the excess- that combination was removing all that ink!  I was so happy!

My couch was pretty wet, and  so I put a towel on it to suck up some more water.  I figured the least CamCam could do was provide the weight on the towel.

 

Now it was done, and I just hoped with everything I had that when it was dry, the couch would be one color. 

Please no permanent cleaning spots. 

Voila!

Back to new.  I just hope the next “accident” is as easy to fix.

It’s Summer, Cut Me Some Slack

In just under a month, I will be having my little blog will be having it’s 1 year anniversary.  It’s been almost a year since I was driven by frustration to start this thing.  And in just over a month, CamCam will be turning 3.  Yup, I will have survived a two year old.  Again.  I thought, over the next month, it would be interesting to see how much has changed in the past year.  I’m going to find some old posts from the early days, back when I had only like 2 people reading my blog, and repost them now that I have oodles and oodles of people visiting me daily.  Well, not quite oodles, but 10 at least. 

Yeah, reposting- how lazy can I get right?  But, ^^^ahem, read the title. 

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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Considering a Ban on Markers

Today "Little Miss Chatterbox" broke her eyeglasses, so I had to take her and the three little guys to the eye doctor to get her prescription. Somehow we ended up there without CamCam's shoes, so I had to carry him the whole time. He was sitting in my lap, and I looked down at his legs and saw they were covered in red and green marker.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Boo-Boos," CamCam replied.

"How did he get at markers?" I asked noone in particular. "And if they're all over his legs, where else did he write?!?!?!" …………….(Click here to continue reading)

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One of my biggest frustrations a year ago were writing utensils.  CamCam LOVES to draw, and wrote on everything.  He ruined our couch by drawing all over it, he wrote on the kitchen cabinets, walls, floors, furniture, toys- if it was less then 2 1/2 feet from the ground, you better believe he drew his fabulous scribbles all over it. 

Here’s an excerpt of a post I wrote back on August 23, 2009, CamCam’s 2nd birthday as a matter of fact. 

Ages Three And Up
#5- Writing Utensils!!!- This is the worst! Nothing is safe from CamCam wielding a marker. There's always the tell-tale sign of him coming to me with his legs or arms covered in marker. Then I have to go on a hunt throughout the house to figure out what he drew on. He's draw on my couch, the hardwood floor in 3 separate rooms, the majority of the stairs, our dining room table, the exposed side of our kitchen pantry, the kitchen cabinets, carpet, windowsills, countless walls and I'm certain many other places and things I have yet to discover. I have no idea how he is getting at all these markers and pens and pencils. I keep them ALL very well put away. He must have a secret stash I have yet to discover.

I tried hiding all our writing utensils, but no matter how many I gathered, CamCam always found more.  Over the past year, I’ve slowly started throwing them away.  First went all the markers.  Then the crayons.  Now we are down to just a small amount of pens and 1 pencil that I keep in the kitchen. 

Problem solved, right?

Wrong.

The other day I was in the kitchen cooking and looked over at our dining room table to see CamCam sitting at it with a pen, scribbling ALL over it ferociously.  Big wide circles, around and around and around. 

So for the official tally: 
Drawing on things 1 year ago vs. Drawing on things now: 
No Improvement

I Watch Them, I Swear

Lately CamCam and "Mr. Trouble" have been playing the cutest little "game" ever. They have been walking around with their stuffed Mickey Mouse, and they call him their baby. It makes me smile to watch them taking care of this "baby." They bring him with them to watch TV and sit him on the couch. They take turns holding Baby Mickey when he "cries" and try to soothe him. They give him naps, they bring him to the table at lunchtime and pretend he's eating too.

Everywhere they go, Baby Mickey goes.

Considering they're only 4 and 2, they do a pretty good job of taking care of him. Not that I'm going to leave them alone with "The Baby" or anything, I'm just saying I'm pretty impressed at their early parenting skills.

But yesterday Baby Mickey was brought up to me looking like this:






Which is really a perfect mini-version of what "Mr. Trouble" and CamCam looked like. Cheeks, hands, feet, legs- yup they did it all.




They look very proud of themselves, don't they? "Mr. Trouble" is trying SO hard not to smile.

I'm not sure if they used permanent marker or what, but after a bath and numerous face scrubbings, this marker isn't budging. Here we are a full 24 hours later, and my boys are still sporting their fantastic markings.

Which is why "Mr. Trouble" and CamCam are in charge of a stuffed animal and not him:

You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson by now...

CamCam has been sick lately, and so the days have been a bit tough. He's very fussy and whiny and wants me to hold him the entire time he's awake. It's been a very rare moment these past few days that he's happy to play, and so when he is I grab those few minutes and attempt to accomplish something around the house. He does take a nap, which is good. Today during his nap I tried to catch up on laundry. Usually I have my older two put their own laundry away, but I wanted a laundry-free hallway so I decided to put it away. I walked into "Leader of the FabFive's" room and was greeted by THIS:

I guess this is how he was busying himself while I unloaded the dishwasher earlier today. I don't think I even need to try and describe how I feel about this. Or how his brother will feel about the calendar he was keeping track of all his school assignments on HERE:

Considering a Ban on Markers

Today "Little Miss Chatterbox" broke her eyeglasses, so I had to take her and the three little guys to the eye doctor to get her prescription. Somehow we ended up there without CamCam's shoes, so I had to carry him the whole time. He was sitting in my lap, and I looked down at his legs and saw they were covered in red and green marker.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Boo-Boos," CamCam replied.

"How did he get at markers?" I asked noone in particular. "And if they're all over his legs, where else did he write?!?!?!"

We continued on through our afternoon, 45 minutes at the eye dr instead of the 30 seconds it was supposed to take. On to the mall a half hour away and new glasses in an hour from Lens Crafters! Yay for seeing again!

We get home, and I'm in the bathroom washing my hands when I hear "Little Miss" exclaim, "Ohhh noooo!"

"What is it "Little Miss?"

"I found out where CamCam got markers from! My room and he wrote over all my stuff!!!"

I went into her room and the first thing I saw was the base of her fan colored in red marker. No biggie, sure it will wash right off. Then I noticed it was all over her little sewing kit. Oh no, she's not going to be happy with that.

He drew on some pictures she was working on. Great, this will make her upset.

And her carpet- this makes me upset and will not be easy, if even possible, to clean.

Oh look, it continues onto the hardwood floor. Atleast that's easier to wash up. Looks like he spent some time on the hardwood floor getting it just right.

And hey, her shelves too. Oh look, he colored her underware. (This she wouldn't like me posting pictures of.)

Yet another room that has been redecorated by CamCam :)