"I wonder what they're doing. . . ."

Those of you who are parents have probably had this thought before: "The kids are awfully quiet. I wonder what they're doing." Well. . . . .

Yesterday was a tough day. Whining, fussing, fighting, tired. And that was just ME! I'm kidding. I needed a few minutes of quiet, so I asked (begged) the girls to go play and leave me alone.

About 15 minutes after they left, I decided to go see what they were doing. What I found, I never could have imagined. As the pictures indicate, the girls stripped down to their birthday suits and proceeded to create body art on each other with a black sharpie permanet marker! How do they think of these things??

I was speechless, but I knew that I had a couple of choices. I could blow my stack (and make a tough day even worse) or I could let them reap the natural consequences of their actions. I chose to see the humor in the moment and allow them to experience the long lasting effects of permanent marker wearing off and the embarrassment of explaining to others who can't help but notice their artwork. By the way, mineral oil (baby oil) doesn't work. Neither does Noxema. Scrubbing hurts. We're still experimenting, but it seems the best thing so far is the chlorinated water of a swimming pool. At least its mostly off their faces now.