Our little Trouble-Maker

Here's a little back fill on the following photos:

It was the night before Josh's change of command.  Thursday night.  Josh's sister Rena had flown in Wednesday afternoon.  His parents, Mike and Karen, had flown in on their delayed flight that night.  I had finished up some FRG training over at ACS and had returned home.  With all of the company, we had made up a little bed for Addison in our room - just as we had a few weeks earlier when Mike and Karen were visiting the first time.  I know they didn't nap the day before since we were at the airport, but I don't remember if they napped on Thursday or not.

So here's the story:  I'm nursing Hannah and Josh comes out and throws his hands up and tells me it's my turn to deal with Addison - this wasn't alarming as we frequently tag in and out when she's being a handful.  I walk back to find what you'll see below...

This was after we had stripped her down and started running a bath in the spare bathroom for her.  Note the paint in her hair... the tub water had to be changed out a few times as it was just saturated in finger paint!  Also not that her hair was down - I think she had just had a bath... BEFORE this bath.

This is the light switch in our room.  Apparently she needed more light to create her works of art... thankfully this washed off.

 Our first look.  This tells quite the story... she loves doing crafts and the craft bins are in our master bath.  So, this is where she got creative.  You can see that at one point she tried to clean up - the TP is covered in paint as well as the box of tissues that she moved down next to the toilet.  That's soap and hand sanitizer on the edge of the sink. She also emptied a jar of seashells that we had on the counter
She got into it all including my shoes, the q-tips and cotton balls, our toothbrushes... even my SPARE toothbrush!!!  I keep it in that top drawer and it was the ONLY thing she touched in there!!!  With her obsession with chap stick,  I thought for sure that would have been something she would have gotten into but it wasn't!  Also, the bathmat and entire bathroom was JUST cleaned!!!

She had a good time...  What WASN'T pictured was a picture of my side table - she left some nice hand prints on the glass panel and the table cloth.  She also picked up a picture frame and covered that with little green fingerprints.  Before she got into the paint, she must have gotten into the highlighters inside our desk - all the caps were on different colored markers and there are a few lines on my dresser and another framed  pictures.  After a few loads of laundry and a roll of paper towels and cleaner, it was all washed up and returned to normal.  Thankfully!!! 

The next night, she got into the stickers.  No harm done, just annoyingly amusing. 

Last week she covered herself with desatin.  Not just the regular stuff... but the thick-and-creamy-overnight-style.  It clears up and prevents some pretty bad boo-boo-bottoms in this house... but I've now learned that it does NOT wash out very well (speaking of both laundry and children) and it's "stench" lingers for quite awhile...  After 2 baths, Addison still smelled like it and her hair was yukky.  The clothes and sheets are still "stained" after a few washes.  Sigh.  Annoyingly amusing.  Lesson learned.  Diaper changing things now live on a shelf in the hallway.

There's always more - like how she emptied her dresser last week (after a very long vacation from THAT)... so I took away her clothes.  And how I found her climbing on the shelf in her closet... which explains who and how things from the top shelf ended up within reach.  This, along with the discovery of another box (containing flower sequins.... yes those were "explored") prompted the emptying of her closet.

The good news:

I've learned a lot - like how the bedrooms of a 3 year old are something like playgrounds and they also still need to be "baby-proofed".

I don't have to worry about cleaning up finger paint.  It's all gone and we have no plans of buying more for awhile.

My toothbrush is sanitized.  (and just now, Morgan followed Josh out into the living room with my spare toothbrush in her mouth... still covered in finger paint... sigh...)

I'm glad that God is growing my patience - I'm one that will pray for it despite knowing that it will be tested because I want to grow in that specific way.  So when these things happen, all I can do is "grow" and laugh... and take pictures to taunt her with later in life.

I could go on, but God's been "growing" me today and the girls are headed to bed early tonight.  As a side note - the lump on the back of A's leg was looked at again today as it's started to hurt her and is now bigger and red.  Instead of draining it (they think it's too deep) we are going to be starting a round of antibiotics.  Be praying!