Green Nostrils & Purple Teeth

I fondly remember my crayons. I was the little kid who would hoard them away and never share them with anyone else. Other kids would only waste them by pressing too hard, so much so that they would break. Or they would jokingly stuff them up their nostrils. I respected my crayons too much to subject them to that kind of abuse. It is with this understanding that you can safely assume that I was not very reckless with my crayons, and didn’t therefore write on walls and furniture or stuff them into my pockets.

So when we thought we would get Ava her first jumbo crayons, I was excited to pass the Crayola fun on. I scoffed as Rick picked up the pack with, “WASHABLE,” in bold letters on the front, and though we are both stubborn by nature I figured this would not be worth the effort. Surely, crayons couldn’t be that messy.

Ava does indeed like her new crayons. She scribbles away for long periods of time perfectly content with her eight jumbo colors and a few sheets of paper. Just the other day, however, she decided that she should taste her new crayons and see if they would make a good snack. They don’t taste very good, but she discovered that the mush it creates by getting them wet was much more fun. Apparently, “WASHABLE,” also means, extremely water soluble. Not only do they wash out of clothes easily, they can also get smeared just as quickly; just apply tongue! They smear across bellies. Around noses. Inside the ears. Over foreheads. Through the toes. Just about anywhere Ava desires.

I guess the happy bold-printed, ”WASHABLE,” really meant that we would be doing a lot of washing…not avoiding it.