Coated SOLID Pink...

i'll do a wedding post soon... i hope :-] but i wanted to write this story down while it's fresh in my mind. i'm providing you with your day's laugh but keep in mind that i sure wasn't laughing at the time :-D

thursday night i had bible study at the casa rota at 8:15. the kiddos were in bed when i headed over there and i got home around 9:30. i saw that the love seat was looking really crooked and the door was cracked open to the girls' room but figured it was fine and i'd fix both of those things before heading to bed. around 9:45 i head to my room and go to move the love seat when i find my 4 year old, Laura, hiding back there wide awake! talk about getting the ba-gee-beezes scared out of you! so i try to talk to her about everything under the sun as to why she's there instead of her bed; no response. she's in shutdown mode and i have no idea why. so after trying and trying i take her to my room where i wake up jessi to see if she would happened to know what was going on and of course to jessi's knowledge laura was suppose to be in bed. so she's still not talking and i decided it was late and she just needed to go to bed. i walked her to her room, opened the door and could smell it.
clear as day.
like it was still fresh.
finger nail polish.
nail polish + a 4 year old = no bueno.
so i said in a very firm voice so that she would respond to me: Laura, where is the nail polish?
she pointed to the bathroom.
and at this point i'm wishing i never would have opened that door.
yes, it was that bad.
beautiful pink nail polish e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. -- meaning, on the bathroom door, the bedroom door, the bathroom door handle, the bedroom door handle, the floor (tile AND grout), the sink, the faucet, toilet paper wadded up (at least it was in the garbage can), her pajamas, but worst of all, her hands were coated solid pink.
and i'm sure my blood pressure was going through the roof at that point.
i mean, really? at 10:00 at night this had to happen? of course it did. during the day wouldn't suffice. :-] oh children... how they teach us so much about ourselves, right?
so we went back to my bedroom where we tried to talk but she wouldn't talk again - 2nd shut down mode within a 20 minute period - and we decided to try and clean off the paint from her hands before she slept.
now i understand why i had 3 bottles of fingernail polish remover :-] i've thought that was oddly strange for like 6 months, but last night i was .T.H.A.N.K.F.U.L. :-] and 2 bottles later, i got like 1/2 of it off -- my hands actually turned pink from trying to get it off of her hands, so that goes to show just how much she had caked on there! not to mention the dried and matted toilet paper to her hands as well!

it was simply bliss trying to get that off.

if it were possible i'd put her in her own bedroom and be done with it because she is forever getting out of bed and into things. it doesn't really matter how many times we tell her no or what punishment we give her - she laughs and does it again. but her own room isn't an option at this point so we'll continue cleaning up her messes and try to smile in the process knowing all too well that Jesus is making us more like Him through her.

if you have any advice or ideas for keeping a defiant 4 year old in bed, let me know. :-]