I bet no one's toddler is as creative and artistic as mine - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[ghosty]

Never ever had this problem with DS - he was positively angelic at 2 compared to his sister ... I used to have a smug smile to myself when I heard of people's toddlers drawing on furniture ...
This week DD has drawn in biro on all the arms of our sofa and chairs and on the coffee table Luckily we have that macro suede stuff so the biro comes out and eventually we will sand down the coffee table and re-do it ... but she can not keep her hands off pens or pencils. I try to keep them out of reach but as she has a big brother who needs to do homework and drawing etc she is like a bee to a honey pot when the pencils and pens come into view. She drew in black permanent marker all over her face and hands last week luckily missing her clothes.

But today was the pinnacle of her artistic endeavours so far. It all went quiet ... I was cooking and she often goes and plays with the taps in the bathroom filling her teacups etc ... I don't have a problem with water - the floor can be dried and so can she ...
But after about 5 minutes I went to check on her. I opened the bedroom door and there she was, happily playing with her cuddly toys. She turned to me and I saw that her face was covered in black stuff. I thought, Oh no, she has got hold of a marker pen again! On closer inspection I could see that the black stuff was mainly around her eyes and it had a feathery brushy look to it. My heart sank ...
I went to the bathroom and the horror of what I saw was too much to bear ... she had literally covered every available space with beautiful patterns with my lovely lovely Lancome Mascara - everything was smeared - the sink, the shower door, the floor, the toilet cistern, the toilet seat, and ... the inside of the toilet bowl .
Can you believe it? She got a right telling off and was put in her room knowing full well what she had done ...
But the best bit was when DH came home and on picking up the cat to give it a cuddle, found that poor thing's back covered in mascara . Poor thing is still desperately trying to lick it off but can't reach

All my own fault of course, DH says I should put my stuff away, and put all pens etc away out of sight ... yeah, yeah .... blah blah ...

My DS has spread blue acrylic pain everywhere today. Got hold of it while DH was supposed to be supervising him (I'm at work - honest). It's apparently all over the floor, walls and him.

I've got one of those Feb 04 toddlers too!

2 of his most recent activities invloved drawing a beard on his chin with a black marker pen (at least dd tells me he did it himself) and drawing a face and various lines on the living room carpet, which I cannot get out. I wouldn't mind but the face is about 2 foot big!

I love "blue acrylic pain" aragon! What an apt typo!

Oh Gracielou, I'm getting really scarred now as we are about to start potty training - I can deal with pen marks, paint etc in the wrong places but poo I'm not sure. I'm an art director and when I was small I walked round with a pen tucked in my nappy and spent years drawing all over the house when ever the urge took me - got in to loads of trouble and found the best place to draw was on the back of furniture so it took years for some of my creations to be found! My DD loves drawing and strangely tucks a pen in her nappy in case a creative urge takes her - I keep passing her pencils, paper and huge sketch pads but I've started checking all over the place for secret drawings!! Fingers crossed she doesn't think poo is an artistic medium to try out.

Try nailpolish removal pads for any marks. Worked a treat on walls, floors, fabric, toilets, oak panelling, even antique furniture! (Anyone know how to get crayon off sandstone?) My SIX year old wrote her name beside our front door of our new house, scribbled over it , then blamed our 2 year old. It was only when I was sitting outside in the sun (relaxing) that I looked up and her name leapt off the wall at me.
They do NOT grow out of it . You are NEVER safe. It looks as though the temptation is just too great to overcome any form of sanction!
Just recently she scratched her sister's name onto her wooden wardrobe. Matches the big "S" carved a foot high on our week-old glass-fronted dresser

Tartan, try spraying hairspray onto the crayon, leave then wipe it off with a cloth. I've seen it work on a whitewashed wall but I'm not sure about sandstone, its worth a try though.

My DD aged 2.6 drew all over the cream living room and hall walls in red marker pen. We were trying to sell and had viewers due right then.
Oh my God, what a panic!!!

We can laugh about it now but at the time it wasn't funny. The viewers bought the house, by the way.

I got cleaning pads called "It works" from QVC - they are great for getting assorted marks off surfaces. I'm not sure about sandstone though. Good luck.

My DD is the same, if she goes quiet you know she is up to no good.

One thing she loves that is pretty "clean" is stamping with ink pads and has your DD got an Aquadraw?

Sorry about your mascara though, I have lost many a lipstick the same way!

OMG - Sudocrem. DD2 (2.5) shut herself in her bedroom and very quietly re-decorated the walls, the door, the carpet and herself with an entire large pot of it. When I opened the door looking for her (I only noticed the quiet for about two minutes) she looked as though she had been entirely coated with white gloss paint with just two little eye holes poking through. I had to scrape it off before I could even begin to try washing as it just smears everywhere and is waterproof. It took most of Saturday morning to do. She also did a masterpiece on the pristine white wall in the hallway of our new house the day after we moved in (did I mention we live in rented accomodation ) Fortunately that time it was only pencil, and I sat for a while rubbing it all out before the letting agent came round to check things out. Mind you, I have a vague recollection of numbering the keys on my Uncle's antique piano with red marker pen, and panicking when it wouldn't come off, so covering it up with tipp-ex . Even now, 30-odd years later I remember the telling off.... So with regards to my daughter, I can't be too surprised because as my MIL says "She didn't lick that off the floor"

Oh dear so much to look forward to and ds has started his exploits early at 13 months.
This morning he carefully took all the tubes of cream I'd given him to examine - hand cream, foot cream etc - and put them down the toilet and closed the lid. Took me ages to figure out where they were.
He also thinks it's interesting to put his hand in the loo when his sister (4) is doing a wee and then trying to lick it - unless I can get to him in time when I hear dd call out 'Mum, he's making me wee on him again'

Doesn?t that "keep all the pens away" advice really wind you up?!!
They are so inventive, you would need to keep a lot more away than just pens.
My friend suggested I give mine a few paint brushes and beaker of water to draw pictures on the patio and the bricks on the house. Fine until they start adding "colour" in the form of soil and ended up having to get the pressure hose out. They are so fast as well. Nothing to do with being unsupervised. Mine can repaint the side of the house in the time it takes me to make a cuppa. All those professional painters and decorators out there could learn a thing or two from my kids

oh ghosty - sympathies but the cat did make me chuckle. We have our pens etc out of reach but they climb to get them. Dd1 is getting better but she is 4!! She has a big magnetic drawing thingy that she just loves playing with - as well as doing lots of art at kindy so perhaps that is also helping.

OH pmsl! How funny.

Total PITA, but very funny

I thought I had a problem with DS1 (Feb 04...) and his urge to decorate our cream sofa in biro (less than 10 seconds I swear, and biro over every damn bit of it and DS1 with a "what naughty person did that?" look on his face). Seems entirely lame behaviour now I've read this thread.

I've been carefully keeping all pens/crayons on high shelves but didn't think about all the creams, make-up and such like. There's stuff like that all over the house...

[runs off in panic]

It helps to know I am not alone

Hmmmmm - poo .... she did it once ages ago (nappy off in her cot and poo everywhere) but was so offended at being unceremoniously dumped in the bath and scrubbed at 2 o'clock in the afternoon that she hasn't done it again!