Well that’s what you get, sleeping in until 8:30 like some kind of princess.

This morning the girls came in to my room at about 7:30 and asked for the iPad, as per usual. Usually on the weekend I just say yes and keep sleeping, but I decided that since the other day went so well with the crafting and all, I’d just say no and they’d find some non-screen activity to keep themselves occupied and let me sleep.

Oh, they found something to do.

At 8:30, a little 3yr-old girl walked up to my room and said “Mama? I can’t wash this off…”

I half opened my eyes, expecting to see marker. Maybe paint. But it was so much worse.

Red, purple, pink, teal, sparkles. Completely covering her hands and feet. Including the intended target of such a product- the nails.

Oh. My. Lord. Nail polish. I PANICKED. Do you know how bad this situation could be? I immediately called Fiona, who came reluctantly into my bedroom and the first thing she said to me was “It was an accident!” Accident? No, child. You don’t accidentally get into nail polish. Try again.

I resolutely headed downstairs to the kitchen (which smelled exactly like a nail salon, the scent was potent), steeling myself for the worst. My first question was, how on earth did they get into it?

Allow me to make an aside here and describe to you my method of “child-proofing”. Once an item becomes a potential issue, or even it its just something I don’t want little eyes peeking at, I throw it up on the top of the kitchen cabinets. I figure- I can barely reach up there, so it should be safe. The nail polish and polish remover is in that little white bag there.

Clearly, this system is due for an overhaul. Because apparently, Fiona can reach the tops of the cabinet if she stands on the counter.

When I came down, I grabbed the bottle of nail polish remover, and started cleaning children first. Fiona needed the least scrubbing, her nail polish was mainly limited to overflow around the nails themselves. I could tell she wasn’t trying to make a huge mess, just, you know. Be a fancy lady with painted nails. Bianca was still wearing her footie jammies, so the polish was limited to the backs of her hands, but Violet had ambitiously gone for both fingers and toes, and so was pretty well polished. The three of them stunk to high heaven of nail polish remover when I was done, so I sent them upstairs to shower all that off while I set to cleaning the kitchen itself.

I immediately started the “well, it could be worse” game. The polish came off the table and chairs easily. Could be worse- they could have decided to open the nail salon in the living room. I was able to scrub it off the bathroom floor and sink and toilet. Could be worse- they could have gotten it all over the walls. The mat in the bathroom is toast, but you know? I’m kinda sick of that pattern and color anyway, so no biggie. Now I can get a new one. Since they had been wearing footies, they had removed their clothes prior to painting, and so no clothing was ruined. And they had tried to clean up, judging by the couple dozen wet wipes I found balled up on the floor.

Stern talkings-to were given all ’round, and we moved on with our day.

le sigh.