You know the face-painting Princess Mariposa thing has gone a little bit too far when your child starts drawing on her face with marker pen and then cries bloody murder when you force her to wash it off. I even showed her what she looked like in the mirror and she still insisted that she wanted her face left like that. Boy am I in trouble if she still likes this look when she’s old enough to get herself permanently inked. That thought just sent a shiver down my spine.

So I took the markers away and that went over like a lead balloon. She’s had it coming though. We’ve been going round and round about marker pens for weeks. I’ve always thought it was okay for her to have marker pens so young because she’s my kid. She’s an artist. She’s going to grow up drawing with all media and why should I hold back?

My mom never let me have marker pens until I was some ridiculous old age and I remember wanting them SO BAD!!! I think I even remember vowing to myself that when I was a parent (someday off in the distant future) I would let my kids draw with marker pens no matter how young they were…or something like that.

So I guess this is what I get: a kid who draws all over everything and herself. What did I expect? It’s not like I didn’t know it was coming. There was that one time that SuperChic drew eyelashes on herself with Sharpie. (CC! Where is that photo? I can’t find it anywhere!) If that isn’t a warning to me then I don’t know what is.

But really it’s not that bad. I do expect her to draw on herself and I will usually let it slide. It’s my own fault for not watching her more carefully while she is drawing. But I had to take the markers away this time because last time I told her if she drew on anything other than paper, I would. So she’s on marker pen restriction for a week.

Poor kid. Heh.

She was very very sad. I stood there feeling bad for her and decided that I didn’t really want the day to go as other days have gone with me snapping at her all day so I broke out my box of art supplies and decided to make masks with her. If she wants to be Princess Mariposa so bad why don’t we make a Princess Mariposa mask!?

It was a brilliant idea. Except for the part where Tuesday was a super busy day with appointments at the car dealership and a dental appointment for me. But whatever! Bring on the craft supplies!

Once the glue and feathers and sequins were out all thoughts of banished marker pens fluttered away like a happy green butterfly. In fact we both had so much fun we made several masks! I think if I hadn’t needed to rush off to the dealership to pick up my car that had been in for service, we could have made masks all day.

There’s no real how-to on these. I cut out symmetrical shapes from card stock and then cut eye holes in them. We taped a lollipop stick on the back as a handle since I didn’t have any elastic thread on hand. The decorating was pretty much a mess of Elmer’s glue and whatever we could find. I did use the glue gun at one point to attach the heavier items but that was purely because I have a glue gun handy (like right here in my kitchen drawer!) and I am not afraid to use it.

I think we will be doing this again. It took little to no preparation and kept us both occupied for at least an hour. I think this would be a great party craft. Maybe we’ll have to throw a masquerade ball one of these days.

I have a feeling Princess Mariposa will be making her appearance quite often.

You’d think I had a three-year-old living around here or something.

Her Majesty wanted to go to a jungle yesterday. I don’t try to make it a habit to fulfill her every wish—though it does seem like I do sometimes. But it was one of those days that I didn’t have anything else planned so I said, why not? That is the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom, after all. I might as well enjoy the perks.

So off to the zoo we went. It was the most jungle-like place I could think of outside of this giant nursery that sells plants to offices and the Rainforest Cafe. I thought about squeezing all three places into our day but the zoo ended up taking up all of our time. Which was great! I don’t really like Rainforest Cafe’s food anyway. Our packed lunch was a way better deal.

We rode the train, we visited the monkeys…we tried to avoid the school field-trip crowds but that was tricky. It’s crazy how these hordes of school kids can swarm you and for about a minute you just have to stand still and let them flood by you. Then they’re gone and you have the zoo to yourself again.

I splurged and let Bug get her face painted. I have a soft spot for face-painting because I really want to be a face painter myself someday. I know I can do it. I just need to get the supplies and study up on the do’s and don’ts. One of these days I’m going to hire myself out for a birthday party or something. I really like how some of the artists incorporate the child’s whole face. This one artist I watched painted open dragon eyes on the child’s closed eyes. It was the coolest thing ever. I’ve been told that Johnny Depp has his eyes painted that way in one of the Pirates of the Carribbean movies but I haven’t seen it. Maybe I’ll have to make a point of renting that movie for research.

Bug seems to like face painting as much as I do. She’s such a bouncy wiggly kid but when it comes time to hold still to get her face painted, she’s as quiet and still as a statue. If only I could get her to hold that still when I’m doing her hair!

Bug chose a green butterfly (of course). The end result was fabulous! It really changed her whole face, almost in a tribal way. It was funny to watch younger kids look at her. They were scared of her but fascinated at the same time. One Hispanic mother and young daughter marveled at her for quite a while and as they left I overheard them talking about “mariposas.” I had forgotten that that was how you say “butterfly” in Spanish. So for the rest of the day she was Princess Mariposa to me.

We met up with Calee and her daughter Audrey. Audrey wasn’t scared of Bug’s funny green face at all. I have some photos of Calee but they turned out blurry so I’m not posting them. But one of these times I’m going to get a picture.

It’s funny how many great friends I’ve met through this blog. I get a lot of emails from people saying they’d love to meet up someday or send me something but they don’t want to seem like a stalker. I don’t even think about stalkers much anymore. Probably one day I’ll meet somebody creepy but I haven’t met anyone like that yet. So far every single person I’ve ever met through this blog has been fantastic. I guess blogging is a good friend filter.

A while back I was criticized for exposing so much of Bug’s life on the internet. While I agree that that is a valid concern, I’m almost thinking that blogging works in the reverse as well. I feel like I’ve made such an amazing network of friends here who really love and care about Bug. If, God forbid, something terrible did happen people would come out of the woodwork to help me. I know you guys would. I hate to even think these thoughts BUT I think we are at a much greater risk from the random strangers we meet in the grocery store than we are by the random pervert who bookmarks a page on this blog.

Just a thought I’ve been thinking about for a while…

Of course I still worry and that’s probably why I’m such a paranoid freak about Bug keeping up with me when she wants to lag further and further behind. But overall I like to think of my blog as my extended protection unit. You know this silly green face. You’d recognize it anywhere. I know you guys have got my back.

So we will carry on, Princess Mariposa and me.