The Artist

He-Man made his mark on the wall today. He has twice marked the floor and once, the fireplace hearth. The previous tools were markers or crayons so today's pencil was actually not too bad.

Henry noticed it first.

H - "Who wrote on the wall?"

Me - "I don't know. Are you sure it's writing? It could be where I had the wreaths leaning against the wall. Maybe it was scratched?"

H - "No, it's not from the wreath."

Me - "He-Man, did you write on the wall?"

Nods head.

Me - "Come here."

We then go through the, "Are you supposed to do this? What is the only thing it is OK to write on? Is this paper? Are you in trouble?" conversation. It's truly amazing how he has zero desire whatsoever to lie about any of this. He's just as honest and matter-of-fact as he can be.

The perfect consequence to this situation is to give him the job of cleaning the mess. Henry finds the box of baby wipes and He=Man then has to stand there scrubbing the wall to remove the marks. It comes off fairly easy (easy for us) but is the perfect difficulty for him. He can get it but it's work.

Later Rocky asks, "He-Man, why did you write on the wall?"

H - "It's not paper."

R - "Did you do it because.......(waits for answer)...you're a bad boy?"

(I almost intervene.)

H - (cooly replies) "Yeah."

R - "Are you gonna do it again?"

H - "No, I can only write on paper."

Allright, we'll see.

Why is it that some children feel the need to do this kind of thing? I think all of the children had ONE incident of writing on something inappropriate but He-Man has been the only repeat offender. I guess I should be thankful because some children have the desire to shove stuff up their noses or to eat poisonous substances. When I hear of THOSE kinds of stories, I realize how grateful I should be that artwork (including only 1 bad "Let's play haircut" incident) has been our only real "I can't beieve you did that!" trauma.

If I was superstitious, I wouldn't be posting this entry, ya know. It kinda seems like I'm asking for it, doesn't it?