Madeleine's Murals

As I said yesterday, Madeleine has become quiet the artist and her favorite medium is crayon on wall. I know that all of you moms out there are thinking, "Wendy, you need to put the crayons up where she can't reach them." I do! I do!

We sit at the table and color, and when we are done I put the crayons on top of the fridge where she can't see or reach them. But, while we are coloring I sometimes get distracted, and Madeleine takes the opportunity to hide a crayon. She's a sneaky little two year old with foresight.

Later in the day, long after the crayons and paper have been put away, I will notice that the house is silent. I can't hear Madeleine playing. But then I listen closer and hear a faint scratch, scratch, scratch. I realize instantly that the faint scratch is the sound of a crayon being scrawled on the wall. Immediately I scream, "Girl, you better drop that crayon before I get you!" And out she comes running like a bull in a china shop stopping just long enough to hurl the crayon toward me and yell "I color on the wall!"

When I went and inspected the damage, I found the picture you see above. That picture looks harmless enough--its not that big. But she drew similar pictures on every wall in her bedroom and our bedroom.

As you can see in the picture, she is very proud of her drawings. Every time we pass by a picture, she says, "I draw!" In fact, when I took the picture above, she wanted me to take a picture of ALL the places she had colored (and that took forever since she has colored everywhere).

Thank goodness for washable crayons and the magic eraser sponge. If it weren't for those two things we would have completely lost our deposit. But maybe I am cleaning them to quickly. Maybe these scribbles are just the foundation for her master piece. Maybe she has some long term plan for creating some great wall mural. Maybe, just maybe, she is out budding Michelangelo.