19 May 2011

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.

12 comments:

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Sigh.

Acrylic, hey? Perhaps a nice watercolour picture next time, Jessie...

Heather said...

My beloved (and fairly artistically skilled) daughter will be eight in one week. I *still* don't let her use anything other than washable paint and markers. Well, once in a while I'm forced to let her use a Sharpie (permanent marker) but I do it with the closest of supervision.

So, I commend you on your bravery. :-)

tinsenpup said...

I feel your pain. I'm shocked to find that I have one of those little ones who draws on everything. The big one never did that. Ever. She is, however very artistically minded and like to leave drawing implements lying about for any-old-one to pick up. It's not proving a good combination. Did you know that on certain surfaces, many of which exist in my house, washable markers are not washable at all?

Tracy P. said...

Shhh! Tone it down over here. My kids still don't know about paint.

Swift Jan said...

This is why I do do craft at our house.

I hope you can get the paint out!

Jodie said...

I hope it all came out in the wash. I too am getting very good at not today.

Alison said...

We don't paint much around here, either. That's what school is for.

I like the way your font got larger as the post went on.

Catherine said...

Blue is the worst. God help you.

Justamum said...

At least when you close your eyes to go to sleep you can picture the photo of Jesse and see the complete joy and happiness in her face!

It is just a shame that what can bring them so much joy a=can give us such a headache hey!

veiledturnip said...

I figure it must have been bad seeing there's no aftermath photos! But look how cute Jessie looks all set up!!

Hippomanic Jen said...

You poor old thing. It was all good until the BOYS, hey?

Emily Sue said...

But hey... at least it wasn't blue food, right? (Yep, I'm sure that makes it all better.)