The reason Caleb may never be left alone again......

A picture says a thousand words, right? This is Caleb's wall in his bedroom. He had a playdate with a sweet girl friend yesterday and her mommy and I were so excited to have some mommy time downstairs while they played in his room. It got AWFULLY quiet, but time got away from us and before we knew it, they had been up there for QUITE some time, so we decided to go and check on them. We walk in and THIS is what we see on his main wall. It is a mixture of fingerpaint (washable, thank goodness), Elmer's glue, MASSIVE AMOUNTS of glitter, and permanent marker. All the way up to the (low) ceiling. Oh yes. 

 See those "M's"? His partner in crime's first name starts with an M, and she has much daintier hands than Caleb. This door is her masterpiece.

 We can't seem to get the handprints off his textured ceilings without it staining. Sigh. And for the record, I REALLY wanted a pic of the two instigators since they were COVERED in paint, but I didn't want them to think I found their work amusing in the moment, either.

Ok, so, after our initial ABSOLUTE SHOCK, my friend and I put the kids to work helping us scrub off the paint (luckily it came off pretty easily, except for where they had layered it with glue) but it still took a good hour and a half. Not sure what we're going to do about the permanent marker situation, as it is EVERYWHERE. I was remarkably calm, and honestly didn't feel anger at all...this is totally the "peace that passes all understanding" because I should have been mad!  I felt more exhaustion just thinking about how long it was going to take to clean...and then how I was going to remember this for the rest of my life, and how I would be talking about it to HIS kids when they do something equally crazy!! The sentimental sap in me kept thinking,  "these are the moments! This is childhood, and he won't be little and thinking this is a fun thing to do forever. Savor it. Even these moments where you cannot even believe what you're seeing."When we first saw it, my friend and I  had to hide our faces so they couldn't see that we wanted to laugh SO BADLY but had to act sterner than we felt because we didn't want them thinking this was an okay thing to do!

 I got so many comments on FB about the pic, I decided to send the pic on top to the Ellen show, along with the story. I'm pretty sure nothing will come of it, but it would be fun if it did. I could totally see Caleb and his friend up there with Ellen telling her about "the incident." Ha! 

Caleb's first statement to me when we saw it was, "Doesn't my room look beautiful now, Mommy?" and utter disappointment when we started cleaning it up. Many people on FB have said they would have left the one wall the way it was, but I just couldn't for fear of him thinking it was ok...which it wasn't. But a part of my heart did want to, because it was pretty amazing--very artistic! And they certainly had a blast. I figure I'll have the pictures and the image stamped in my brain for the rest of my life, so I'm good. :) 

So, the moral of the story is...silence from a 4 year old's room during a playdate is never a good sign. NEVER EVER EVER. Ever. :)