Artwork Mishap Circa 1980
It was 1980 and from what I have been told I got creative with my artwork one day and decided to use my crayons to color the bumper on my father’s car (by the way I was almost 3 years old). Never mind the fact that my dad did not own this car and that it was a demo that was loaned to him. See when I was growing up my father worked at different GM dealerships, where he was a manager and afforded a new car every six months. This was part of his yearly salary package. But again never mind that.
Me Around the Time I I Got Creative with Crayons!
As the tale went, I was told that when I was confronted with my misdeed I proceeded to tell them that I didn’t do it this masterful artwork, but it was the neighborhood kid two doors away that did it. My father took one look at me and knew I was lying through my teeth. I was punished and told if I do something wrong in the future and was honest about it, my punishment would be quite a bit less, because it was so very important to be truthful, honest and not a liar.
Fast Forward to the Great Artwork Mishap of 2012
So back just about two years ago in September of 2012, I found myself in the early days of blogging sharing how, Kevin, the girls and I were sitting in our living room watching Disney Jr, with the the girls, who were also playing with crayons and their coloring books – creating their own artwork.
At this point, Emma was going through an artistic phase and loved to draw, color and even put stickers on her artwork. This evening I was transported back in time to that fateful story I shared above.
Why??
The Artwork Mishap Present Time
Well, Emma’s latest artwork canvas was indeed the spine of Kevin’s beloved artwork coffee table book. Except, my three year old doesn’t do lying and is truly that honest. When confronted she stood there like a deer in headlights!
This was where I first had to explain to Emma that not all books are indeed coloring books for her artwork. At this point she was just starting to learn to write her name but very primitively.
Emma first writing her name back at 3 years old.
The irony of this incident at this point compared to when I was a child really didn’t escape me and indeed truly is a small world after all with kid’s artwork!!
You might be asking why I am re-sharing this here at Wonderful Wednesday today.
Well, a week ago as Emma was getting ready to go to the bus stop, Lily blurted out, “Emma wrote on the wall!”
Emma, in turn, pinched Lily.
I quickly had to diffuse the situation and didn’t quite understand what Lily was getting at as we were running at the door and didn’t have a good chance to look to see what she might be referring to.
After Emma got on the bus and we returned home, Lily said it again and pointed to the spot on the wall clear as day that Emma took her Frozen (yup because we don’t have enough Elsa, Anna, Olaf gear here!) pen and wrote her name beautifully on our wall – signing our wall or her artwork.
Written beautifully and had to give her an A for her penmanship, even if it was on our wall!
So, I took to Instagram to share this, because as annoyed as I was that she had written in pen on our wall, I couldn’t help, but marvel at how beautifully she has grown in the two years since she first learned to write her name.
See back in the Fall of 2012 in pre-school, she was writing her name with my help and it was all in uppercase letters, but now in Kindergarten, she writes her name all on her own, knows the letters and their sounds by heart, as well as knowing the only letter to be in written in uppercase in the first letter, “E” and the rest needs to be written in lowercase letters. And each day that goes by, I notice her penmanship getting better and better, as well as her drawings and artwork, too.
She also is learning to write and read other words such as love, girl, at, I, and so much more.
Yet, you may be asking at this point though – Did I confront her about writing on our walls?
Yes, I did, but I also made sure she knew how proud I am of her as to how well she doing writing and reading now.
Emma Had a Blast Putting the Haunted House Project Together And Is Growing Up So Quickly!
I am hopeful that I have taught once and for all to write on paper and not walls or her father’s books now that she is a bit older and more mindful of learning from her mistakes. But still, I guess it is small steps, and yet I still overwhelmed at how quickly those last two years did go by since I blogged about her original artwork foray. It is indeed wonderful though and a bit frightening, as well too.
Now onto the hop!
Welcome to Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop where we celebrateYOUand your talents.This week’s highly viewed were so many that we’ve combined them in a collage.
Please be sure to visit them and show them your appreciation!
Fall Leaf Garland by This Silly Girls Life
Quick No-Bake Oatmeal Bars from Happy Pretty Blog
Help! Bloggers Ask Your Questions from J-9 Designs
Easy Healthy Apple Crisp from Luv A Bargain
Arroz Con Leche Rice Pudding from Titi Crafty
Cream Cheese Apple Cake from Bunny’s Warm Oven
Now, let’s party!
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Tammy of Creative K Kids
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Simply Suzannes at Home says
Thanks so much for hosting, Janine!
Your daughter’s are so cute :0)
Have a great week,
Suzanne
Bill says
You really have to laugh at the irony. I went through several such moments with my son, and darn it if my memory didn’t dredge up those moments when my parents just shook their heads and laughed rather than cried. 🙂
Great story, Janine. Hang in there, mom. It gets easier in time.
Emily says
These were cute stories, both from your childhood as well as from your girls’ more recent coloring. As for my boys, they too wrote on the walls, and it was only a few years ago where we found an R-rated word on the wall – of course no one fessed up to that one!
Amanda @ Growing Up Madison says
hahaha I’m telling you my kid and yours would get along perfectly. We have crayons in almost every room of the house. Madison thinks she’s Picasso and she sure has the artwork to prove it. 🙂 You’ll show her this in a couple of years and you’ll all have a good laugh about it. 🙂
Kim @ HappyPrettyBlog says
Yay I’m so glad that so many people were interested in my oatmeal bars last week! I always love participating in this hop!
ruchira says
aaw! this is precious to see her grow up and know her alphabets and names!
IT feels good to see them grow, J9
Sure, as long as she does not write on walls then it is a win win situation for all 🙂
happy to link up!
Pure Grace Farms says
Thanks for being a great hostess and a wonderful party. Terrific posts this week!
Leilani says
My little one will draw on herself every chance she gets. And since her brothers love leaving markers lying around. . . its like every day. And I would have been proud of the name on the wall, too! It was beautiful! 🙂
Bev says
Oh man, I hate to see where Eve’s creativity will take her when she’s old enough!
Kim says
Sister love is awesome!!! Funny that Lily ratted out Emma:)
Diane Roark says
Hey Girl,
OH MY WORD!! Did it come off? What did Emma say when you confronted here? Do not leave me hanging! I cannot wait to hear more.
SERIOUSLY!
Thrilled we get to Party tonight.
Blessings,
Diane Roark
Jhanis says
Hahaha! Oh my! I already scrubbed our walls except for one! If my kids were to keep writing on walls, I’d rather have them do it in one place! LOL
Alexis @ BabyStuff.tips says
Oh my! My little man is still a bit young for this. Going to be honest, I’m not looking forward to this phase.
Robin (Masshole Mommy) says
It;s like a rite of passage for kids to write on the wall. And deny it LOL.
Tara Newman says
A new car every 6 months? That must have been fun! Avery went through a horrible phase where she wrote on all the walls. Then would try to say it wasn’t her. Umm, what? Magic eraser was my friend. Never thought of nail polish remover!
Dara says
I keep trying to get Simon to write his name at all! lol.
Jen says
Oh that is too cute and naughty 🙂 A few years ago my pre-k girl took a pencil and drew happy faces on several of our walls over a few month period!
Robbie says
Knock on wood but my kiddos never displayed their artwork on strange places! We did have a magnetic chalk wall in the playroom so I imagine that helped…having that freedom in their space.
The Dose of Reality says
Bwahahahaha…well now you know it’s just in the genes!! 😀
Lucy once wrote her name in marker on the carpet, so I can totally relate. (except fingernail polish was useless). I wanted to give her a heads up and tell her that it’s better not to write her OWN NAME because she could at least try to blame her brother…but I didn’t. She had to figure that one out on her own. –Lisa PS. Her penmanship is great. Writing with pen on wood is difficult!
Kimberly says
Hello cute lady! It is always a pleasure to stop by and party with you each week. I hope you get a chance to swing by our party.That would be totally amazing. http://loulougirls.blogspot.com/
Happy Wednesday! Lou Lou Girls
Rabia @TheLiebers says
I’ve been lucky so far in that my kids haven’t written on much they weren’t supposed to. My middle son, Henry did color himself blue with a marker one day, though…I mean almost completely blue!
Rea says
When Reiko started scribbling on our bedroom wall, we pasted a big white paper on the wall for him to scribble on. LOL. The markings on the wall using permanent marker were not removed though. So cute that Emma already knows how to write her name! 🙂 Can’t wait for Reiko to learn writing his name.
Stephanie @ Life, Unexpectedly says
Why only do kids love to put their artwork on the walls?? I don’t think I’ve ever done that.. Need to ask my parents this weekend. Lily started to color the walls of our apartment in Washington when she was about 18 months old; luckily, we could wipe that off fairly easy. At our apartment here in Germany, they once drew on the wall the entire stretch along the length of the couch. I almost died when I saw it, because the wall could not just be wiped off again. Hope Calvin won’t start artworking the walls of our house in a year or two 🙂
Tamara says
Oh dear. Such things happen!
We have a lot of washable markers in the house so there’s always that initial panic when we see that one of the kids wrote on the table or the walls, but mostly, it washes right off.
SO FAR!
lisacng @ expandng.com says
I’m glad the writing came off and that her handwriting has indeed improved in the last 2 years. Oh kids! And the telling-on-one-another has started already!!!! Good luck, good luck! 😉
Nellie @ Brooklyn Active Mama says
I love it! I mean–I have been there too, my son drew a heart but I could bear to remove it because it was done in love. You definitely had a great proud mama moment!
Kristi Campbell says
my little boy’s writing is still crappy but he’s working on it and I love love that little Ms. is such an artist like her daddy!
Aunt Gloria says
Emma is doing so well with her writing skills. These are the stories that will follow her into adulthood! You handled it well. And those photos of all the goodies made me want to break all my diet resolutions! Yummy! Love……
Alison says
Aw, I get the feeling of pride too. Yay Emma!
My nearly 5-year old has been practicing his penmanship too, and he does a good job of writing his name (his brother’s, a few other words). For someone who’s speech delayed, I think being able to write is a great way of self-expression.
Rosey says
My second oldest took an ink pen and wrote his and his girlfriend’s name inside of a heart on a wood table in his room. He was in middle school. -_-
My baby took a Sharpie and wrote all over our brand new wood table (it was here two days maybe). Thank goodness I learned online that toothpaste takes Sharpie off of wood. 😉
[email protected] says
Seeing her sweet handwriting touched my heart…I know sometimes it has to come off! Thanks for sharing your stories with the Thursday blog hop!
Dana says
I love how Emma wrote one letter on each panel – very pleasing to the eye! Except your eye, of course, because it’s your wall. I suppose she could have done worse damage!
Brittnei says
Ha Janine this is too funny. I bet your parents were loving this. It seems parents like it when their children can experience some of what they did with their own kids. 🙂 So cute to see though how Emma has grown in writing her name. JR definitely enjoys writing on more than just his coloring book. I haven’t had to clean up his coloring much lately, but boy was I thankful that the crayons I did buy were washable. 🙂
Ginny Marie says
Oh, my, I would have been upset! Lily once drew a picture with crayon on my dining room wall and was quite proud of it. It was actually very cute, but I washed it off right away. Fortunately, she had used washable crayons! Afterwards I wished I had taken a picture of it. 🙂
Kenya G. Johnson says
Christopher drew on our leather sofa with a ink pen when he was little. The thing is I just happened to notice it “one day” and I couldn’t be mad and wasn’t able to conjure up a fuss because I didn’t know when it happened. Even though the scrawl was obviously scribble of some sort when I asked him if he did that he said no. That’s one I let slide. My husband wasn’t a witness so I said oh well. The sofa is “dark-ish” and the ink scribble has since faded.
Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life says
She did a great job with her letters! But the wall…yikes! Only one of my kids drew on the wall, but it seems like he drew everywhere. His artwork was on the kitchen wall, in back of our bedroom door, and in the minivan with a Sharpie (still there)!
Nina says
Hi Janine – just stopping by from the Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop at Katherine’s Corner and see that I probably should pop in for your Wednesday linky party, too!
Love this post and your perspective on children’s art work. My favorite was when we moved a book case to paint our upstairs hallway and discovered a note, scrawled in pencil on the wall paper: “I Love You, Mom” I had never noticed it before (and how it got there, behind the book case, is beyond me!) but when we removed the wall paper, I kept that piece and put it in the scrapbook. Thanks for sharing! Nina @ Vintage Mama’s Cottage
Mo at Mocadeaux says
I love that you focused on the silver lining – improving penmanship – rather than on the crime!
My mom loves to tell the story of the day she opened the refrigerator to find a long swipe of chocolate frosting missing from the cake she planned to serve for dessert. When she asked me if I knew anything about the situation, my 6 year old self played dumb. Then my mom pointed out that I had left evidence at the scene: my favorite monogrammed hanky which I carried with me everywhere but never used for its intended purpose. I was busted.
Tami says
Well, I have no kids myself, but I do remember my own childhood mishaps. I wrote everywhere…on the walls, on my clothes, on the floor and once in my aunt’s checkbook. I say once, because after the spanks I received for it, I never dared do it again. And, my preferred tool was lipstick.
catherine gacad says
you are such a good mommy! seeing the positive where others might just get mad.
The Pinterested Parent says
LOl! I love it. Mai has chosen to do her artwork in rather strange places as well. There is nothing she won’t paint in our home. She does have lovely penmanship though.