TROUBLE!!!!

This girl is Trouble with a Capital T!!!!

Markers and Lipstick are her vice.

These pictures were taken this summer.  My good friend lives across the street from her neighborhood playground.  We were sitting in the grass in her yard.  The girls were playing at the playground just across the street.  Piper was sitting for the longest time on the sidewalk with her back to us playing with something.  I thought she was digging in the mulch.  Ainsley needed to go the bathroom and I didn't want to leave Piper outside by herself so I walked across the street and this is what I found:

Someone had left a little girl's purse (probably a 7 or 8 yr old's) on the sidewalk.  Inside were little containers full of play makeup.  The thick waxy kind that doesn't wash off easily with water.

This next picture was taken just after Dan left.  Ainsley had been watching TV in my room.  Piper went in to join her.  I must have been doing something in the basement because Ainsley came running frantically to find me.  She told me that Piper put lipstick on her face.  It was all over her face, hands and my carpet.  Luckily our can of 'SpotShot' got it out pretty well.  The lipstick was trashed and Piper has been banned from my room and my bathroom except for certain punishment occasions - **see further down the post.
We do not allow markers down anymore.  We keep them in containers that are immediately put up after use.  This was a few weeks ago - before we had the marker rule.  Ainsley is always drawing and therefore leaving her markers/crayons/colored pencils unattended.  Piper is always borrowing them to draw on her self or the walls or the freshly painted french doors or her big brother's homework (that they should be putting away when they are finished but alas they often leave it on the kitchen table).

We were getting ready to go somewhere when I found her like this.  She had been wearing a skirt or shorts.  We quickly found pants to hide this mess.  Didn't want the public to know what a bad mother I was. - (this has happened many times - I only managed to get it on film a few)

And here is our latest.  I told Daniel that I will never exercise again.  I hardly ever do - I don't really enjoy it but I had 30 mins before dinner the other night and of that 30 min.,  15 of them had not been spoken for.  So Ainsley was drawing with the strict instruction to clean up after herself, Piper had been whiny so I put her in front of Elmo in the living room, MacGregor was practicing the piano, and Chase doing homework.  I ran down to the basement for 15 mins on the eliptical before I had to make a salad for dinner.  A few mins later, MacGregor joined me.  I told him that maybe he wanted to bring down the baby - he said no, she was watching Elmo.  A few mins later after that Ainsley came down the stairs looking for someone to play candy land.  MacGregor agreed to play.  I never even thought of asking Ainlsey if she had cleaned up.  I finished on the eliptical - my mom had just walked thru the door from being gone all day - she came down to the basement.  My dad had been working on his computer, he walked down the basement steps with a smirk on his face.  I thought he had overheard me telling a funny story about him to my mother but then he rounded the corner with THIS:
I was going to crop this picture but I think my face is important.  I am so tired of this girl and her colored face/body.   She is my extreme child.  She is an extremely good sleeper.  Goes down without a fight.  Loves her bed - requires no complicated routine.  Put her in bed, cover her up, turn off the light, shut the door.  We never hear a peep.  But when she's awake -  watch out world.  You need to have your eyes on her at all times.

My mom ended up making the salad and I took Piper to my bathroom and put her in the shower.  She DOES NOT enjoy the shower.  I scrubbed and scrubbed the washable (haha) marker from her face and hands.  The face came off reasonably well - just left a pale shadow.  The hands were still quite dark.  It is fading but it still offers us a constant reminder to keep the markers high.

So Daniel - I think I'm done exercising - it just isn't worth it!