Earlier this evening Claire was coloring in a notebook with markers at her little table while Mark and I were sitting at the big kitchen table talking. I looked over to check on her - she had been awfully quiet for a while - and noticed that she was busily coloring both of her arms and hands with the green marker. Not wanting Mark to miss out on the scene, I stifled a laugh and motioned for him to turn that way. They're washable markers so we weren't terribly concerned, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere; when she starts drawing on herself, the walls and furniture are next on her list. She seemed to be concentrating pretty hard on one of her wrists, so I quietly snuck over with the camera to take a video and was promptly busted. After checking out her arm art I reminded her that markers are for paper only, not for drawing on ourselves. She responded by coloring baby's nose green, and then doodling on her chair and the windowsill. Toddlers and self control...
Despite her protests and attempts to mark up other areas of the house, Mark and I ended up putting her markers away with a reminder that we don't draw on ourselves or the furniture, which induced a minor tantrum of sorts in Claire. Her face wrinkled in agony that only a frustrated 2 year old knows, she walked over to the pantry door and threw Baby inside as hard as she could before slamming the door shut. Then, of course, she realized that she wanted Baby back so she started banging on the door, sobbing "Baby! Baby!" Poor kiddo...such big emotions. So we retrieved Baby and she fell into my arms to finish unloading, and soon all was well again. The markers safely tucked away in an upper cupboard, Claire went about the rest of the evening with the message that we don't color on anything but paper.
Fast forward a few hours. I had forgotten during the marker episode that I had somebody coming over tonight, somebody I had hired to color on my skin. A local artist was coming over to do pregnancy henna on my belly. The timing seemed like it was going to work out well: Mark and Claire usually go upstairs around 6:30 to start the bedtime routine (brushing teeth, pajamas, reading books) and Victoria was planning to arrive shortly after that because it was the only time that worked for both of our busy schedules. Unintentionally at first, I figured Claire wouldn't see her or know that she had even been here - and now that the marker incident had occurred, it seemed better that she wasn't going to witness the hypocrisy firsthand. That was the plan, at least.
Long story short, Claire didn't fall asleep right away and ended up coming downstairs (a rare occurrence these days), and saw the lady drawing on Mama's belly just a few hours after Mama had told her that we don't draw on ourselves. I felt like such a hypocrite! But Claire was unphased, and took great interest in the process so we let her stay up a few hours later than usual.
If only I'd known what a fun and relaxing process this is, I'd have done it during Claire's pregnancy, too. I feel so pretty and pampered! And it's so enjoyable for the mom that babies love it, too; our little guy or gal spent most of the time stretching and rolling with big, sweeping motions. Victoria did a beautiful job, and we had so much fun chatting. I can't wait to take some portraits this weekend when the henna will be at it's darkest. We don't have many belly shots yet, and this finished product is gorgeous...what a fun way to celebrate this pregnancy and the largeness of my belly :)
These pictures were taken about halfway through...the finished design is amazing. I plan to post better pictures this weekend :)
While we waited for my belly art to dry, Victoria even did a little henna heart on Claire's hand, and then she applied magenta glitter - so cute! Claire was really good about holding it out to keep from smearing it...for about 5 minutes. Then she abruptly wiped it off. Notice the leftover green marks from the incident earlier in the evening. ("Hypocrite! Hypocrite!") Mark had a hard time getting a clear picture because she was wiggling and dancing around in excitement. I think she'll still have a faint heart on her hand tomorrow, since it stayed on for at least a few minutes, so I'll try to get a good picture.
So I foresee two possible things resulting from tonight:1. Claire may be even more inspired to draw on herself now, and who can blame her? I'll laugh if she starts drawing on her belly.
2. Claire will NEVER want to go to bed again, thinking we have parties like this every night after she goes upstairs.
These next few nights should be interesting...
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