Saturday, July 28, 2007

The tears fall

Yesterday Garrett disappeared for awhile and when I went to find him, he was in the bathroom, water was flicked all over the walls and floor and he was sobbing. He had gotten into my red nail polish, knew he wasn't supposed to, tried to wipe it off on his bedroom wall, dripped it on his brand new carpet and then headed to the bathroom to rinse it off. But it wouldn't wash off.

It was so sad to see this little boy trying so hard to remedy the situation but not having any luck at all. It was actually heartbreaking. Jeff just held him and loved him and then we both did damage control.

Which made me think about my other children and their personalities. Grace got into my nail polish when she was little too. She happily painted her nails and then wiped them all over my bathroom towels, counter and walls. She couldn't have cared less. Emma did the same thing a few years later....wiped what she could off on my carpet and then trotted along to play hoping no one would ever notice the nail polish streaked on her hands and blaring up from the carpet.

All totally different responses to the same situation. Only one didn't get in trouble. Should he have been punished? Perhaps, but I don't think so. He punished himself the whole time he frantically tried to make things right.

It appears that I have a lesson to be learned here. I have two children left that have not tried their hand at nail polish art. NOTE TO SELF: throw out the nail polish. No matter how secure you think it is, it's NOT. Mani's and Pedi's, here I come!

10 comments:

Kristin said...

what a good kid...
I had to learn that same lesson, only with scissors and hair. Luke's had to be buzzed to remedy the damage, Tess had super short bangs for a month, Kate just snipped in the back, no biggie, yet, I still have scissors scattered all over the house. Maybe it's just a childhood rite of passage? The forbidden is always so tempting....

Doug & Stacy Fournier said...

aww, i think he got a good enough punishment too. isn't it funny how different kids can be. they are all raised in the same house with the same parents and yet they all acted completely different. it does make you wonder. i hope you were able to get it all cleaned up! have a great week!

Brooke said...

Yep, expensive lessons to learn. Yoda tried to do some "paw painting" one night while we were gone. He got the paint from the top of the table where I had left it trying to think of a new location for it. His choice of color...RED. All over the carpet, a blanket that was on the couch, and on Bjorn's work bag. The carpet is now a light shade of pink and red still shines on Bjorn's bag. Oh the things I would like to have done to him but being a dog and a puppy at that what could I have done. He didn't seem to know the difference between toys that were acceptable to play with and those that were not acceptable... All you can do is laugh and hope that is the end of the painting.

Anonymous said...

How sad...poor Garrett! I'm glad you didn't punish him...he already did that to himself. Did you get it all cleaned up?

Heather said...

This story actually made me a little tearful. I was thinking about how Heavenly Father must feel, and how much he just loves us even though we do silly things sometimes. And how his heart breaks to. And really, how he just wants us to be amazingly happy.

I am Arizona; a person, not a place. said...

Garrett sounds like he has a big heart!!

Laura said...

What a sweetheart! However I am very sorry for the nail polish disaster. Last year Jacob knocked nail polish over at my mom's house. He ruined his Ralph Lauren shirt, my sisters shirt, and Lindsey's expenisive church dress. We found cleaners like Goof off with combination of others faded it some. I hope you have some luck in removing it off the brands new carpet! Let me know!

Casey's trio said...

Garrett sounds like a sensitive boy. Poor guy...I agree that it sounds like he punished himself enough. Thanks for the heads up on the nail polish. I probably need to just throw mine out and skip that catastrophe in our house.

slw said...

Too cute! I have now moved all my nail polish to a high shelf!ha, ha.
Just wanted to ask about the twins, do you think they are even closer than 'not so rare' twins because they were so close inutero? I have been reading alot of twin books, and the wierdly close bonds they can have, so I am curious to hear about other mono-mono twins?
Sara

Debra said...

What a sweetie he is! I wish my kids had that much of a conscience!!