Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Max makes up for lost naughty time


Saturday, Max was determined to be b-a-d. It wasn't a full moon or anything, and so I decided he was  making up for lost time. He's never had that terrible twos or threes or even fours stage; his hands, body and mind weren't up to it. Weirdly enough, I felt like I missed out. Not anymore.

In the morning, when he and Dave went to the gym to pick up Sabrina from her class, Dave turned around for a minute in the waiting area and Max disappeared. Dave looked around frantically and finally found him inside the gym, doing laps.

At home, Max proceeded to extract the contents of his top bureau drawer down the stairs—socks, pajamas, more pajamas—and dump them down the stairs.

I was totally sleep-deprived and took a nap in the afternoon. Thanks, honey! Only thing was, Honey fell asleep on the couch while he was supposed to be watching the kids. Max got his hands on a blue marker (no purple was around), and decided to color in his socks...


...and our nice wooden floor, circa 1910. Also, some of the area rug in the room. And a bit of the wood kitchen table, circa 2002 and hanging in there.

My first reaction was, of course, glee. Being able to wield a magic marker like that: quite the feat of fine motor skills. Also, setting his mind to doing something this stuff: impressive. Sabrina was coloring on the walls at four, and not once was I ever ecstatic.

I repressed my enthusiasm. "Max, we do not write on our socks, the floor, or the carpet," I said, firmly. "Coloring is for paper."

"Yes, Max, don't do that again," said Sabrina, which totally distracted me.

"You're not his mother!" I said, stating the obvious.

"Oh!" she said, restating the obvious.

I keep those Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads in the house, only in case of emergency because I fear the chemicals in them. Sure enough, they got out the marker.

At night, I read to Max from Thomas & Friends Movie Theater, a new possession.


Max doesn't like the book so much as the little battery-operated movie projector that comes with it and projects images of Thomas and his pals onto the ceiling. Max wanted to sleep with the thing, but I said no and put it on his shelf.

I walked into his room a couple of hours later. He was sound asleep, cuddling with the movie projector.

Watch out world, it's Bad Boy Max.

9 comments:

  1. That's amazing! Yay Max! lol

    I can't wait until Mango throws his first tempertantrum or does something hugely naughty on purpose. I'll be so proud!

    As a side note, why on earth doesn't that poor, wee boy have any purple markers? Don't you know that's his favorite color? :0)

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  2. HAHAHA!

    My little monsters did a Michaelangelo on their plain beige walls in every color imaginable using pen, marker, crayon, you name it. No magic eraser was getting that out. I left it until we moved and then used Kiltz to hide the crime. Now they have one wall that is pretty much all blackboard paint.

    They also decided last fall that they wanted tattoos like grampa's friend has, so they accomplished this with black and blue INDELIBLE markers that they swiped out of grampa's toolbox. They had to go to school looking like "the neglected kids" with scribbles all over their arms because that just wasn't coming out no matter how many baths/scrubbings they had. It finally faded but it didn't happen overnight!

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  3. YEAH for Max! That rebellious spirit is what has gotten him this far. I wish I had known about the Mr. Clean Erasers when my daughter drew the mural on my wall in my old apartment!

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  4. I'm glad to hear Max is showing his rebellious streak, although I hope it doesn't last for YOUR sake, Ellen! And yes, thank God for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser - I've always wanted to buy one of those things just to see what it was capable of cleaning! ;)

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  5. Hey, just wanted to send along a point of reference....Norwex has "magic erasers" that are chemical free, and work just as well as those mr. clean ones.

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  6. You go Max...and make your Mom and Dad's life miserable!!! Oh...sorry Ellen and Dave...just so proud of "My Max"...lol!!!! XOXO Paola

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Thanks for sharing!