adventures in parenting: candle wax

{found via pinterest from amy's daily dose}

yesterday i decided to drink my coffee out of a new mug i got for christmas. said mug has the words "today is going to be" with an arrow pointing down to a bunch of different possibilities on the saucer that came with it. for my morning coffee time i opted for "a fresh start" since i was starting a couple of different things {more on that later, i'm sure}.

but then i decided i needed afternoon coffee yesterday. i re-used my mug, but this time opted for "an adventure." big mistake.

you see, yesterday was one of those days where keane decided he didn't want to nap. every once in a while despite still needing a nap he decides he's just not tired enough to go to sleep. either way he's still required to take a "rest" in his room for a while.

yesterday was the rare day when he did surprisingly well with staying in his room, even though he didn't sleep during rest time. i could hear him moving around some in there, but he wasn't loud, and i thought he'd end up falling asleep eventually.

after a long while i heard his door open a little bit and i could hear him slowly coming out into the hallway. i called him downstairs to see if he needed to go potty, and when he got to me i noticed he had a small splotch of something on the side of his face near his ear. he rubbed his fingers together like he does when he has something on his hand and he's trying to get it off.

even though the color didn't quite match i asked him if he pooped because what else would he somehow have all over his hand? there was nothing else in his room he could've gotten into... and then i smelled it. the glade candle from way back in october. the one he liked the smell of so well he wanted it in his room. and i said yes because we'd had many conversations about not sticking our fingers in candles. the candle that had been in there for months, and i had practically forgotten about it because he never even touched it. that one. the only thing in his room he could make a real mess with, and he found it.

as i wiped off his hands i asked him, "where is the candle now?" all he would really say was "in my room," and "i can show you." i thought maybe he didn't think he had the words to describe where he put it, but the way he looked at me when he said it made me very nervous.

we walked upstairs to his room, and as i opened the door i saw deep purple everywhere. and i almost completely flipped my lid. there was wax all over the footstool of the chair - the footstool that has a fabric pad on it. the type that sticky, malleable wax will probably never come out of. there was a rather large section of the carpet with wax smeared all over it. a section of the wall decorated with purple wax, and some painted wooden shapes from his box of shapes clearly used like utensils to scoop out a bunch of wax on top of them. these made a neat line across his big floor pillow.

and when i thought that was it i noticed the giant blob on the outside of his bed. thankfully none made it into his bed.

he didn't answer me when i asked him why he would do something like that. he knows better. he knows he's not to play in candles. period. we've talked about it before. suffice it to say i was livid.

we had some words. and then he spent some more time in his room.

of course while he was spending more time in his room he finally fell asleep for a little bit so he was up a little later than normal last night.

and poor adele had to wait in her crib while i finished cleaning up all the wax - as best i could. {anybody know how to get soft, sticky candle wax out of carpet?}

i do actually applaud my son's creativity in a way. i mean, who would have thought of that? but there will be no more candles in his room for a very long time. and we apparently need to make a painting date with nana to relieve some of those creative juices in an appropriate context.

this parenting thing is nothing if not a ball of crazy. and apparently a ball of wax...

happy tuesday!

xo