Caught Red Handed

Through the years we have been pretty lucky when it comes to pencils, crayons, and markers. Samantha has always used paper and is almost always drawing at the table. Valerie also is pretty good about coloring only at the table. Now sometimes, she colors on the table, but that is rare and is usually caused by coloring off the page and is not intentional. Veronica doesn't quite have the concept down and likes to walk around with these items. All of this is good reason to not get a new kitchen table for a few years. We don't have any marks on the wall where crayons or pencils have been used. All the girls have been very good in this regard. This evening we were introduced to a new medium for our young artist to use. Now some of the great artist used canvas and some might have worked in clay or stone. Our new artist used skin. This evening, Sheri went for a run outside. When she got home, she went upstairs to clean up. All 3 girls were at the kitchen table coloring and drawing while I was on the phone with a buddy of mine. I happened to look up into the kitchen to see Veronica hit the floor as she took a quick exit from her chair. She rolls over on the floor crying and gets up. I get off the phone and give her a hug. She calms down and quickly is off to something else. I look down at my jeans and notice some spots on my jeans. Someone is bleeding! I then chased down Veronica and found the victum with blood coming down from her new fat lip. So, I got her cleaned up and was in the process of helping Samantha with her homework. I was standing inbetween the 2 remaining girls coloring at the table when I looked down at Valerie who had a look on her face of "I'm not up to any good sitting here." I even said it -> "you look like you are up to no good." I walked away for a second and then returned to the table. I noticed that Valerie was sitting awfully still and her hands were still under the table. I peeked under the table to find a red marker in Valerie's right hand. On her left hand I found the ink. Her entire left hand was covered in red marker. All the way up to about an inch up past her wrist. Not a spot was missed. I give her credit for being very thorough. Her hand looked as if it was left in the sun for 8 hours and no sun screen. After a quick washing in the sink, her hand remains with a light tint of red. No more markers for Valerie for a while.