Born to be Wild

Ellie woke up yesterday with this adorable hair-do and I think it was just a forewarning of what was in store for the day. I had people coming over, and decided I should focus my efforts on getting the house picked up. When the main floor was straightened I went upstairs to make sure that everything was still tidy. The first thing I noticed as I started up the stairs was a distinctly tropical scent wafting down toward me. A gooey squishy feeling between my toes gave me my first indication that the delightful aroma eminated from a spilled bottle of coconut-scented shampoo that was now being used to "clean" the carpet. I wiped off my foot and made a mental note to come back and clean the soapy puddle. As I turned the corner, I saw a bright yellow mural welcoming me upstairs. Ellie had used sidewalk chalk all over the walls--not terribly difficult to clean, just a little time consuming. I heard Ellie playing in the toy room with Sarah, so I decided to start cleaning up the newly discovered mess. When I had scraped up as much shampoo as I could, I decided I should probably get cleaned up myself. I went into my bathroom and discovered another Ellie masterpiece. She had placed my watch in a glass of water (fortunately it still seems to be working), used the handsoap to "clean" the mirrors, and then drew a beautiful picture for me on a check I needed to get cashed.

I got myself, and most of the bathroom cleaned up before anyone arrived, but when Ellie came downstairs to say "hello" I realized that I should have looked at her before cleaning up the rest of the house. After all the time I had spent working on taming her "fly-away" hair, she now looked like a dog that had escaped mid-bath. The front of her hair looked like a soapy toupee, and the rest had obviously been brushed with a shampoo-laden brush. I decided there was nothing I could do at that point, and after a half hearted attempt to improve ther hair, just let her run around with her new do.

The rest of the day went smoothly until dinner. We had invited one of Greg's home teaching families over for dinner, and as I was busily making the last minute preparations, Ellie had once again decided to express herself through the medium of chalk--this time on the stair wall. She also took a bunch of stickers to decorate the fire place, but I think the highlight of her mischievousness was something I didn't discover until today.

I decided to make some grape popcicles for Becca's soccer team. I made the first batch and stuck the remaining punch in the fridge. This morning I got up early to make some more popcicles, but the punch was not in the fridge. I looked all over the kitchen, wondering if I had accidentally put it somewhere else, but to no avail. Then, as I stopped to think about what could have possibly happened to it, I remembered that at about 2:30 in the morning, I had woken up to find Ellie walking up the stairs. I realized that I had probably found my culprit, and started looking in places that only "Ellie's mom" would think to look. I eventually followed a purple trail down the stairs and into Greg's office. and have spent the morning destickifying my house (I don't think that is a word, but it is the only word that describes what I did) but don't worry--I made sure to keep Ellie in plain sight the entire time.