Polish the floors... Not exactly what I meant

Yesterday, Aurora and I went to ULTA to purchase some beauty supplies. I got more makeup and Aurora spent her money on sparkly teal nail polish. This morning, she wanted to paint her fingernails herself. Against my better judgment, I let her paint them on the floor of the playroom. Ryan was in there, too. Somehow, the two of them collided. It resulted in an explosion of teal nail paint all over everything. Fortunately, the furniture was spared such a colorful swash of polish. My floors sparkle now; I seriously don't think the tiny sparkles from the nail polish will ever come off! MY hands are sparkly, too!

This is the mess. Apparently, Aurora was sitting right at Ground Zero and Ryan stepped down from on top of the step stool. This resulted in the nail polish bottle (which is glass) flying into the air and leaving a trail of teal about 4 feet long.



The fan was on in the playroom. This nail polish was drying fast! I did the best I could to get as much of it off the floor while it was still wet. The nail polish remover was almost full when I started the cleanup process.



It took nearly an hour to get it all up. I sent both kids to their rooms because they were each blaming the other. No one really wanted to take the fault for the accident. I didn't see a need to place fault on either for something that nobody had seen coming. I mean, how were they supposed to know that the playroom was going to be redecorated in 1994's most popular kitchen color?

By the time it was all said and done, quite a bit of the nail polish remover was gone. I went through 2 paper towels. The step stool is permanently stained with teal and sparkles. I think the floor looks pretty good, though. There certainly would be tears if I had not been able to get that stuff up. I'm also VERY grateful that this floor is not actual wood OR laminate. The surface would probably have been permanently damaged from the nail polish remover. Fortunately, there is a nice sheen to the floor now. Of course, it's probably just all the glitter catching the light from above!


And, of course, my hands were not immune to the teal's glittery splarkliness. This was the result of my hard work. I do wish that I could blame either of the kids for the mess, but the truth of the matter is: I let her buy the nail polish. I let her paint her nails in the playroom. I didn't stand watch while said teal polish was in use. Nor did I think about the fact that the polish was in a glass bottle. As many of you well know, glass containers and young children do not mix. Lesson learned. The hard way.

The Hazards of Growing Up with Girls

Ryan has 2 sisters and a Mommy. He adores us all. This whole house is full of everything pink. Unfortunately, as a result of all our girly-ness Ryan has fallen prey to many a girly antic.

Today was not an exception. Ryan and Aurora have been playing so well with each other since Elliana came along. It's almost like they have a common ground now that they both have a little sister; they have been clinging to each other so much. Their fighting has even lessened, much to my absolute surprise and benefit.

Back to today, though:

The kids had been back in Aurora's room for quite some time, playing gleefully. They had not been quiet, but they had been keeping each other entertained and weren't fighting. So, I left well enough alone. When it was time for lunch, I called both kids out to their plates at the table and they came running out screaming something about "starving". That's when I noticed it:

Ryan's fingernails were PINK. I'm talking "Hello, Kitty" pink! Very casually and calmly, I asked him what happened to his fingers.

"Oh, Aurora did this." he said. He then took a bite out of his sandwich. Nothing out of the ordinary going on here, he supposed. I stifled a laugh. What would Rob think? Oh, my goodness! Daddy already has had to accept that Ryan loves everything little and baby. What would he think if our Squinky-loving and baby-loving son started wearing nail polish? No, I think we must draw the line somewhere. I think we may have just found where the line must be drawn.

So, I explained to Ryan that he could wear his nail polish for today only, but we were going to remove it at bedtime.

"Why?" he asked. I then explained to him that nail polish was really for girls to make themselves look pretty. Boys don't want to look pretty; they want to look handsome and nail polish is too pretty to be handsome. I let him down easily, and I hope he understands.

I am not one of those sexist people who thinks that boys need to be all about trucks and dinosaurs and lizards and LEGOs. My son is into all that stuff, anyway. For goodness' sakes, he had a Dinosaur-themed birthday party just last month! He just happens to have an older sister he adores. I think he was proud that she paid enough attention to him today and painted his nails during said attention-giving. For once, it was all about him and not about her--even if it was girly nail painting.

Anyway, the nail polish has now been removed and Rob is none-the-wiser (until he reads this blog post, that is). Ryan is pleased that he now looks handsome instead of pretty. Aurora got to paint someone's fingernails today. All in all, I think everyone's happy and we can now go to bed fully satisfied.