My budding artist

My dear boy Luke has just been a curious little rascal lately! We keep Madelyn's art supplies in her closet, which he has no qualms about vandalizing. Plus, she leaves her stuff out everywhere, which is how this came about:

 

Turns out that marker was permanent.

 

Then yesterday, he walks up to me and says, "Uh, oh..."

 

And check out that gash he got over his eye he got from falling off a chair a couple days ago. This looks better than it initially did. He has figured out how to not only scale the dining room chairs to get onto the table, but he's able to get on top of our bar stools now. Siiiiigggghhhhh

 Then I went into Madelyn's room and discovered the 40 other things he'd drawn on with green marker. The carpet, every toy that was within reach, her beach towel, her dresser...

 

 ...her dress up baskets...

 And her bed, two of her blankets and the quilt which I had JUST WASHED the day before. Did I mention he ripped off all her wall stickers again, too???

 

I can't help thinking that if my children didn't roam around like free range chickens all day, things like this wouldn't happen so much. "Free Range Parenting." I should write a book. It involves having to actually be going about your life and your household duties without hovering over your children every second. Unfortunately, it involves a lot of messes and more than the usual amount of sand being eaten.

And your kid might end up being green a lot. Or black if he finds a pen. And pencils aren't safe from him either.

By the way, the marker washed out of everything but one of the wicker baskets, which will need a coat of paint, and the carpet still has a greenish tinge. Tally another point for Luke! So far he's winning in the carpet wars! Now excuse me while I go find a padlock for every writing implement in the house...