Inky Imp

When DH got up this morning, he peeked in Jillian's room to see if she was awake. She was still sleeping so he left her door open a crack and came on downstairs. When I got up, I peeked through the crack, she was still sleeping, so I came downstairs to have breakfast.

Half an hour later, I mused to DH that it was odd for Jillian to sleep that late but we didn't think too much of it. Five minutes after that, we heard the telltale rattle that lets us know that Jillian's Dolla is on the way down the stairs. As she was coming we took bets about whether she was going to be cheerful or grumpy (lately it can go either way in the mornings) and DH said that if she wasn't crying, she was likely cheerful.

When Jillian wakes up happily she normally runs giggling into the room squealing things like "Good morning!" or "I wakin' up!" or "Hi guys...what you doin'?". This morning when I heard her feet hit the hardwood I was surprised that her footfalls didn't speed up in preparation for her grand entrance. But she wasn't crying either. We didn't know what to think anymore.

Moments later, Miss Jilla appeared in the family room, walked straight up to me and said "Mommy, I have marks on my arms and legs". I automatically started having visions of measels and chicken pox but tried to keep my cool. I took a couple of deep breaths and asked her what she meant. At that point she lifted the hem of her nightdress to show me her legs.

When I saw what she had done I wasn't sure if I should laugh, or cry, or yell. The child had found a black ballpoint pen in her room (I have no idea how it got there), uncapped it and had some fun doodling on her legs and arms. Her arms didn't get too much attention - I think she was having trouble keeping her sleeves up but her legs.....well.....look at this:


Here's a closer look:

Wow.

I tried not to laugh out loud at her for fear of her repeating the performance on a daily basis but I didn't yell or cry either. I just calmly got the camera, took some pictures and wondered if she'll be 16 or 18 before she gets her first tattoo and whether it will be an homage to her father or myself (snarf). There's never a dull moment in this house, that's for sure.

By the way, baby wipes will take the ink down to about half strength with almost no elbow grease. I'm not sure how I'm going to get her completely clean yet but that's a good start.

ETA: Bloglines hates me. Doing little experimental edit to see if it will pick me up if I change something.