Sunday, February 24, 2008

THE GREAT MARK-UP

I was on the phone with my good friend Christy when all of a sudden my husband yells in a horrified way that makes mother's think their child is missing a limb from a freak blender accident or decided to drink Draino. Instead I get a horrified, "Help here please!" I go around the corner expecting the worse and what I find is Kierra with red, permanent Sharpie marker drawings all over her face! I must admit, she did a stellar job because she even attempted to make whiskers for herself.

My first reaction is to laugh, (well maybe not my first reaction: my first is to deliver an "upside of the head" smack to my husband who totally freaked me out). So after that initial response, I would choose to laugh - but only until my husband points out she also had taken the liberty of decorating one of my kitchen chairs and the table top. Ok so maybe not so funny now. My third reaction is to grab a baby wipe and try to get this marker off. All this time my friend is still on the phone getting a good laugh at my expense. She has a 18 month old. I nicely remind her that there will be a day HER daughter marks up her face. She referenced that "Friends" episode when Ross writes on Rachel's face with a permanent black marker and she gets back at him the same way.

Anyways, I think for a moment because this baby wipe ain't doing diddly squat. I tried lotion, I tried oil - NADA. I then remember that hairspray will get rid of ink stains from a ballpoint pen, so why not marker? It's a logical assumption. I go and fetch Jarrett's hairspray (I don't really wear any), and we pin her on the floor. Jarrett is fighting off this blonde, red-faced banshee as I scrub her face with hairspray. VOILA! It's successful and after about 15 mintues of defacing her... er um face, she's squeaky clean again. Work of art disappeared! She's not too impressed with us at this point, but honestly who cares? It's either the hairspray or going out in public with red whiskers and everyone pointing and laughing. The table and chair were easily fixed: I did have a Mr. Clean magic eraser handy. MAN THOSE THINGS KICK ASS!! Don't worry - I didn't attempt to use it on my kids face. Not only would I just never do that, but I have a friend who went for a spray tan and it was poorly done.... she used a magic eraser to try to get it off her legs. All she got for her efforts were very badly rashed legs. I mean it DID get it off quite a bit, but I have it on good authority to say the fake tan looked better than her Mr. Clean mangled legs.

You also know I'M the one that got in shit for the marker. My husband says, "Well why was that marker in the drawer?" Say excuse me? WHO was supposed to be watching? And why can't I have a marker in my kitchen drawer (well except for now the obvious answer). After this I can say I did look through all the drawers and pull out anything permanent. No I didn't think to take a picture (I actually thought she'd be sporting her new look for a week). But let this be a lesson to any of you with children: Just because they haven't done it, and you don't think they'd do it - it doesn't mean they won't!

7 comments:

Jody said...

LMAO omg that made me laugh... glad you got it off, wish you took a picture!!
xoxo

Fratzels said...

OH MY!!!! This is my worst nightmare come true, but it's good to know hairspray took it off. I guess I will go home and remove all the sharpies from my junk drawer!

Maria said...

I wish that I had known about the hairspray when Liv was three and decided to paint our fridge with black markers. I nearly lost my mind trying to get rid of it and finally a friend from Chicago brought this professional stuff when he visited. It worked...but wow..back then, I had LOTS of hair spray around the house.

Kristy said...

Aahhh yes...we have had our fair share of run-in's with Mr. sharpie!! LOL Glad ya got it off her.

Mom not Mum (Sandy) said...

LMAO What a day. I came out of the bathroom once and Jackson had an ink pad and was stamping finger prints of his own fingers ALL over his legs. Thankfully I caught him before he got bored with his own skin. My favorite though is the grafitti I just found on a chair that proudly said JORDAN - hmmm wonder who wrote that there?

Pendullum said...

Oh, I remember those days...
Thanks for the giggle...
and that this 'Sharpie Event' happens everywhere!!!

tulipmom said...

Oh boy! I remember the day I had to move my Sharpies to a higher shelf. Didn't know about the hairspray ... will tuck that away for future reference.