Terrible Twos, Indeed

Margot's reached a number of great milestones lately: first purposeful lie, potty training, solo decents of the stairs (while standing, not on her bum), etc.

But recently Margot achieved a whole new feat: first non-commissioned mural on her walls.

It all started when Brodie and I had Caroline and her mom and dad over for a barbeque to celebrate the end of school and the new adventures we have coming up (Caroline and her family are moving to Hawaii soon and we're headed to London). Stasia (Caroline's mom) and I were getting some food together in the kitchen to bring up to the roof deck. Brodie was in the shower, having just returned from a run. Craig (Caroline's dad) wasn't here yet. And Margot and Caroline were up in Margot's room, hurricaning.

('Hurricaning' is a throw-back to Brodie's days in Officer Candidate School (OCS). Since the officer candidates had to keep their rooms ship-shape (so to speak, even though they were on land) the officers would come in and destroy everything so that the candidates had to re-establish order before being caught with messy living quarters.) In Margot and Caroline's case, hurricaning usually means dumping all the small parts out of toys - a pain to clean up later, but generally harmless.

Stasia and I were chatting...and chatting...and chatting...and then we both realized it had been VERY quiet for about ten minutes.

Oh. No.

Stasia was first up the stairs. And then, "WHERE DID MARGOT GET MARKERS?????" Brodie's voice bellowed down the stairs. I took the stairs two at a time.

Marker on the walls. On Margot's crib. On her rug and sheets. On every piece of furniture in the room. All over her baby dolls' faces and their clothes. All over Margot (but not Caroline).

I don't think Stasia had ever seen Brodie mad before. In his defense, he didn't know the markers are washable. She started wiping the walls immediately.

I'm sorry I don't have a photo to share. But I couldn't take the time to find the camera in case the ink dried and then didn't come off.

But I would like to nominate the person(s) who developed washable markers for a Nobel prize. Or at least a national holiday. The walls wiped clean. Margot's sheets and her babies' clothes all washed clean. Her babies no longer have eye shadow and lipstick, either.

Thank God for washable Crayolas.