Only on paper!!

     So my youngest is a budding artist. He loves to draw, all the time. We have had many discussions about what we can draw on (only paper) and what we can't draw on (everything else). There is many a time we recycle junk mail envelopes and hardly used paper plates and the like to draw on, so I can see how he may get a touch confused, but it is all still paper. He's three and testing his limits, but I know he knows the difference between paper and a plastic tomato. I make sure all the markers in the house are washable for a reason.

     A couple of days ago he got caught coloring on something very important, there was mom disappointment and a timeout involved. Thankfully I was able to get it clean, but the point is we are fresh off of a only color on paper incident. So, I am sitting in the living room and I hear definite coloring noises coming from the kitchen, which I can't see in to. 

"Nathan? What are you coloring?" 

He comes running into the living room with a purple marker clutched in his little hand. "Nothing!!" 

Then I start to get up. "Nathan?" I ask, with that total mom look of questioning. 

Here is where he starts to panic. "Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!" he keeps yelling at me as he is using all of his three year old weight to hold me back. His arms are wrapped around my legs and he is shoving as hard as he possibly can.

As I start to move forward and he realizes that he isn't going to be able to hold me back and takes off into the kitchen. When I make it into the kitchen I discover that he has thrown himself on the floor, hiding whatever it is he was coloring on. His knees are tucked under him, his butt in the air, his eyes are closed and he is clutching whatever it is with all his might. 

At this point I can see what looks like part of a piece of paper sticking out from under his armpit so I can tell it's not a major family heirloom, and it is taking everything I have to not laugh at him. He is so adorable that I am actually looking around to see if I have a camera with in arms length, which alas, I did not.

"Nathan, let me see what you were coloring on."

"Uh-uh."

"Nathan." 

"Uh-uh." 

"You know I can just pick you up, right?" He just furiously shakes his head.

So the ending of this tale isn't really the huge blockbuster ending that it could be. I could tell you that I picked him up, it was a bomb covered in purple marker, and we threw it outside just in time, but that just wouldn't be true. It was just a sheet of stickers that he was coloring on the back of.  He's learning. He knew he wasn't supposed to color on it because it was stickers, but it was on the back, so it was kind of okay. At least I know he is paying attention, even if he is basically ignoring me,  because the above mentioned time out doesn't always work for my creative little man. He just sits there and sings to himself. And I'm pretty sure he would happily do it all day. It is going to be an interesting adventure as he gets older. He is already very much NOT a morning person, which is going to be a lot harder when I can't pick him up and dump him on the couch anymore. He also doesn't care much about "things" at the moment, so taking stuff away as a punishment doesn't work either. Neither does bribery. Not that, that is necessarily the best tool in mom tool belt. I can't wait to see what happens with this one. Now onto convincing his older brother that taking over the world is not an option...