For my first post, I'll tell you a story of what happened this afternoon. Aidan's entire world revolves around getting to go outside. It's not going to be long before his outside time has to be cut way short, we're in for another Ohio winter. He doesn't ask to go outside, he asks, "I pway bwo-weee, Mommy?" (Play bwo-wee is his way of saying "Blow bubbles" which has turned into his little way of begging to go outside) I hear "pway bwo-wee" about a thousand times a day, it seems. It's downright cold of the mornings, so I make him wait til the afternoon time to go out. He's little and doesn't understand why he can't just go outside at 8:00 a.m. while there's still frost on the grass and it's 38 degrees!
This afternoon I wanted to get the kitchen cleaned and had a couple loads of laundry to do. I let him go out while I was working in the kitchen. I can see him from the back door, and he's constantly in and out. He was out there playing, ran in and got a coloring book and a yellow crayon, said he wanted to color outside. I told him "Only color in the book!" He sat down at the patio table and was coloring, so I went about cleaning in the kitchen. Looked up and he was gone. Not a big deal, our whole backyard is enclosed with a 6ft privacy fence, he can't get anywhere. But when I looked at the sliding glass door, I saw a bunch of black circles and squigglies. My little Picasso had snuck a Sharpie out in his pocket.
My heart stopped. I hated like everything to have to tell Larry. Before I called him, I took a magic eraser out there and tried to scrub it off. It lightened it, but definitely didn't remove it. The texture of the siding hindered that, I think. The first ten minutes after discovering his artwork were spent just trying to find my voice. I couldn't say anything, I couldn't get words to come out of my mouth. I was sucking in air, but I could NOT make a sound. I actually felt sick. Then I started crying. And I'll admit, I wanted so badly to laugh, too. But that would have been a bad move in front of the culprit.
And, when I finally found my voice, I asked Aidan why in the world he did that. He said, "Awwww, wook, Mommy, it's so pwetty! I make it for Ha-o-ween!"
He'll be lucky to get a Halloween next year! He'll be lucky to be allowed to use markers by the time he starts school. He had to have hidden that sharpie in his little coloring desk three or four days ago, because that was the last time I used one, working on the girls' halloween costume. I thought I had them all put up, but apparently I missed one. He was so proud of his work. He just kept saying "it's so pwetty, Mommy!"
So, I called Larry and told him. He thought I meant there was one spot or something. So I sent him the pictures. He wasn't as mad as I figured he'd be. He was peeved that his work buddies were cracking up, though.
I stressed about this all afternoon. I got Aidan down for his nap, got the girls back down for another nap, and went to my old friend, Mr. Google. I found a page where someone else asked how to remove Sharpie from vinyl siding. It made me feel better to know that I'm not the first one who has ever had tthis happen. Some suggestions were WD-40 and nail polish remover. I tried the nail polish remover first. It took some, but not all.
I was going to go out to the garage to dig out some WD-40, but one of the babies woke up. Larry surprised me by coming home a little early. He came in carrying a can of brake cleaner. Let me tell you, if you ever need to take black Sharpie off of vinyl siding, that's the way to go! It took every trace off of the whole house, in less than five minutes. So, all's right at our house again.
Aidan's still not allowed markers for a while, though.
And he was angry that Daddy cleaned off his "pwetty" artwork.
Someday we'll laugh about this. That someday was actually today, once it was all over and done.
