Drastic happened a few days ago in our new apartment. While I was busy unpacking in the kitchen, Lili'u found a fluorescent pink highlighter pen and disappeared into the back of the apartment. I should have clued into the sudden sense of calm and lack of background chatter. But no, after several minutes she reappeared in the livingroom and announced in a happy, yet somewhat quizzical voice, "I wrote my name on the wall!" ..."WHAT!!!?" I responded in a less-than-gentle tone. I ran into her room and spun around scanning for the damage. Nothing. By then, she had her face buried in the her hands. "Where, Lili'u!?" I pleaded, and she pointed (face still buried in one hand) into Chris and my bedroom. There it was. "U'LiLi" written in large, bright pink highlighter script across a blank white wall in front of our bed. "NOOOO!" I gasped. And Lili'u ran to her bedroom crying.
I took a breath, went into her room, and knealt down beside her. "Lili'u why did you do that? You know you are only to color on paper Mommy and Daddy give you, right?" She replied through teary sobs, "I TRIED and TRIED not to write on the wall! I tried not to! I couldn't find paper! I just couldn't find any paper!"
That's when my heart melted. I realized that to her the desire to write her name, at that very moment, was more like an urgent, involuntary, visceral requirement. She just couldn't stop herself! And here was this pristine, white wall just beckoning to her.
Anyway, she became desperately motivated to remove the lettering from the wall so we tried several kinds of pencil erasers, which acheived nothing. Finally we called Chris, who was out running errands, and asked him to pick up a "Magic Eraser." Now I know that this product should be on some kind of top-10 list of items to have in a home with toddlers. It worked like magic!
I doubt we'll be having anymore incidents of writing on the walls. Hopefully I haven't spoiled any future prospects of Lili'u becoming an accomplished mural artist.
