Evidence

Why, oh why, didn't I take a photo? (This ugly question sometimes even invades my dreams.) A few days ago, I was sitting right here at the computer, doing something I probably thought was important but wasn't, and I realized that it was very quiet in the boys' room. Since silence is more ominous than outright screams, I called, "Reed, what's going on?" Reed comes down the hallway behind Jaxon, hands on Jaxon's shoulders, saying, "Tell her Jackee. Or I will." (Ah, brothers.) So Jaxon says with not a care in the world, "No!" and runs to sit on the couch. Reed comes up to me in the posture of someone about to deliver some very bad news and says with great piety, "Mom, Jaxon colored with permanent marker on the walls. And the door. And the dresser." So I calmly walk back to their room to inspect the damage, and nearly fall over laughing.

On the light switch are two arrows, one on top (pointing up) and one on bottom (pointing down). Below that is a smiley face, and below the light switch, an up-arrow indicating where the light switch is, should you forget. To the left of the light switch was drawn a sword. So I said, "Reed. Jaxon can't draw arrows. Or a sword. Or smiley faces." And Reed says with clear desperation, "He learned! He just learned!" but when I ask, "Oh? Who taught him?" Reed is silent and morose. Then I walk over to the dresser and see that a lovely wheel has been drawn on the top. And on the door of the guest room, what appears to be a happy face with mean eyebrows, with a circle around and slash through it. That happens to be the time-out room. So at first I thought, "Oh. No happiness allowed?" and was trying to keep it together! I hid my face behind my hair as I grinned away, and when I gained some control was able to get a reluctant confession out of Reed. Phill learned later that the sign on the door of the guest room actually meant "No Girls Allowed." And although it was on the walls for a week, because I had no Mr.Clean erasers, I did not take pictures!