I feel the need to vent for a moment... or two.

On a wall

On the rug.

On the desk, after Jason had tried to clean it up a little.

On another wall and the space heater.

Yet another wall.

It all started about 2 1/2 years ago when we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. As a baby, Andie was a perfect child, always happy and very easy. Since she turned 18 months, we have had one disaster after the next with her. Today was one such disaster. I was in my room folding one load of laundry that maybe took me 5 minutes to finish. I walked out to get the kids some lunch. I saw it as I was walking into the living room and could see the hallway that leads into the kitchen. Red, permanent marker all over the wall. The closer I got to the kitchen, the more I saw. It wasn't just on that one wall, it was on numerous walls and was very large in size. It was also on the desk, the desk chair, the floor, the rug, and the space heater. Oh, and we can't forget, it was also on Andie's hands. And there was Andie standing in the middle of all this with the marker. I yelled and put Andie in her bed and then I went back to the kitchen and cried. Jason, being ever so sweet, came in and said he would help me clean it up. I of course went straight to the internet to see what ideas others had for this type of cleaning. It came off the floor and the chair with a Clorox wipe. I'm hoping it will come off the walls with a magic eraser, if not, it looks like we'll be painting before we move. It is slowly coming off the space heater with a regular eraser, who knew? I believe it will come off the desk with either the magic eraser or a dry erase marker. I do believe I have a few hours of work ahead of me. As I have calmed down a tiny bit (probably the result of my anti-anxiety medication), I did choose to take some pictures, only to have some proof for when Andie is a mom and her child does this. Are you all wondering how she got the marker in the first place? Let me tell you, she got a chair, climbed up on it and reached onto the calendar holder shelf that did in fact have a permanent marker on it. A place, I thought, was high enough up that she could not reach. Permanent markers have now been banned from my house.

As I have pondered this really neat incident, I have wondered if the reason she does these sort of things is my fault. Because she is the second child and I don't spend enough time with her, does she act out to get my attention? I don't know the answer, but I do think I am going to try spending more quality time with her and see what happens. I do know that I am incredibly grateful to my Heavenly Father who has provided me with at least some sort of self-control. Had I not had that, I think this would have been one of those occasions where you would have seen me on the news for beating my child. Luckily, the only thing I did was yell, probably too loudly, but in this case, I'm ok with that.

I am still mad at Andie and have hardly talked to her, I know so childish, but I'm having a hard time getting over this one. Give me a few more hours and a couple of sweet smiles and I won't be able to hold back my own smiles, but for now, I am extremely grateful she is asleep and that I am leaving in two days!