Next time, I'll say No

"Mum, can I paint on my easel?" Jessie asked for the fourth time.  I sighed, but painting is usually manageable when she is alone and she has a painting shirt on.  "Okay, sweetheart, I'll get Woody eating something so he won't get his hands in the paint, and then I'll come and set it up for you."

That was the beginning of the story.  For the short cut to the ending of this story, read my post title above.

The long way to the ending is this.  For half an hour, Jessie blissfully painted while singing a La-la-la-la! song to herself.  Woody ate and then came to join her outside.  I tethered him in the Fisher-Price swing above her head to keep him out of reach of the paint.  Mr de Elba came home and stood transfixed at the sight of her painting and the sound of her sweet singing, with a look of love all over his face.  After she had filled four pages with colourful swirls, squiggles and "a seagull carrying a kid", Buzz came home from school and they painted side-by-side.  Then, in a moment of mental abstraction, I absent-mindedly took Woody out of his swing, put him down, and meandered back inside.

Soon after that, Jessie came inside brushing her hair back from her paint-streaked face and announced, "Mum, look what Buzz has done with my new orange paint."

I went, I saw, and I composed the title of this blog post in my mind.  The next five minutes were filled with my annoying voice shrieking from height to strident height as I discovered more and yet more disaster involving acrylic pigment.

"Oh oh oh oh OH!  Buzz, oh sweetheart you aren't allowed to squeeze paint out by yourself, that is a job for grownups and as you can see this new paint is really runny and OH NO can you just grab this rag and wipe the pavers and oh my goodness can I just reach over you there and wipe this off the OH NO Woody stop lying down in the paint, oh no! Can you just - oh my goodness look at your clothes what was I thinking when I took you down from the swing and let you wander around and just look at this over here!  Oh my word are there any more rags over there and can you just OH NO I think it's time for you to get in the bath Woody and Oh don't grab that!  Yes, well you may cry, of course your hands will be a scary blue colour if you grab the palette with all that blue paint on it.  Just come inside and we'll get you cleaned up, you too Jessie, you've done some great painting but now it's time to finish, just come here into the bathroom - NOT you please Buzz, I am going to need you to use up that orange and that blue on these new pieces of paper here, just let me peg them onto the easel - NO WOODY don't touch that, don't step in that either, oh goodness.  Buzz fill those bits of paper with orange and blue and try not to get any on your school uniform - yes I know your uniform is orange and blue but it's not going to look good so do your best to stay clean, now WOODY AND JESSIE!  Come into the bathroom!  WOODY!  Sweetie please no, your blue hands have made the side of the bath all blue, please don't touch anything at all okay, now arms up, let's get your shirt and jumper off and now pants, nappy, socks, please don't touch that stuff, just wait here until the water is nice and warm, now hop in and hold still while I get some soap to get the paint off your face and hands, here rub this into your hands and the scary blue will come off, now JESSIE can you step out of your painting clothes and your dress, leggings, socks, oh goodness how much Napisan do I have? And now you hop in too ... look at your face, hold still while I get some soap on here, now close your eyes and look up at the water with your eyes closed - eyes closed - and rinse it off .... (breathe) .... now just have a little soak."

Hence the title of this post.