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Around 3:30am Adam decided to come upstairs and join us. When he decides in the middle of the night he always brings something along with him — his “squishy pillow”, a blanket, a stuffed animal or two are his usual choices. Last night he brought up a book and crawled into bed between us laying on his book. I pried the books from his fingers, set it on my nightstand, and tried to go back to sleep with his face smooshed into mine on my pillow.

This morning he was unusually spry and decided to chase the kitties downstairs and didn’t bother to come back up when the kitties came back up. Normally before his morning cocoa he’s lethargic and uncommunicative and unlikely to get into any sort of mischief. 25 minutes later I came downstairs to get Adam ready for school. I found him playing on the porch and let out a strangled scream.
You see, last night we moved Adam’s easel onto the porch so he could paint and we could all enjoy the nice evening. What I did do was put the watercolor supplies away. What I did NOT do was put the markers away. Adam had colored his paper and his non-absorbent easel board until it was soaking wet with dark blue marker and then rubbed his hand and fore-arm in it. When he greeted me at the porch door he was blue — blue hands, face, cheek, shoulder, abdomen. As I was trying to wash it off he pronounced “now I can’t go to school!”
After a 10 minute shower and multiple latherings of soap, he was still blue, but in a much more muted way. Suitable for school, anwyay.

I learned a lesson today. It is important to ALWAYS put the paints, crayons and markers out of reach when he’s done and never assume that a 3 1/2 year old cannot get into mischief at 6:45 am when left unattended.