Never has so great a mess....

been created by one so small.

I get home from work, relieve the baby sitter and feed the kids.

Of course there's a bit of a mess - the entire kitchen counter is covered in their watercolor painting and that's ok.

On we go, have dinner, then the little one runs off. This is a bad sign.

At 2 years and 11 months we're working on potty training. There is a direct correlation between her going off on her own quietly to some room somewhere and an accident waiting to happen.

Of course she decides to skip right past the potty and got to our bedroom. Thankfully its only a number 1 as her favorite for a number 2 is the far corner of the family room, and she thoughtfully does it on the floor and not the bed.

Not a big deal, I don't want to give her a complex, just tell her she was doing so well and she now had an accident so next time she should use the potty.

"Ok, Daddy"

She then dutifully goes to the washroom and tries to use the potty - a sterling example of barn door, locking, horses already left town.

I start mopping up.

It gets quiet again. I then hear a clanking noise.

She found two containers of nail polish in the bathroom garbage that my wife had thrown out today.

She decided to do her nails but seems to think its paint - pouring it on her hands, on her body, on the bathroom counter -- all over the bathroom counter, in the bathroom sink, down the drain. In less than 45 seconds she's turned the bathroom surfaces a lovely new shade of pink and emptied an entire nail polish bottle and is swishing the contents on the counter with the nail brush.

Oh. Hell.

It does not come off.

Paper towel mops some up but just spreads the rest around.

I have a very pink child, and a very pink bathroom counter.

Think. Think. Think.

Ah, nail polish remover, she's got to have some around here somewhere!

Sure enough she does.

Pouring the nail polish on the counter and then wiping with a paper towel. Some comes off, but most is staying right where it is, on the counter. Pouring some on the kids hands rubbing her belly that now has pink splotches - some comes off the tummy but the hands are still a bright pink. She doesn't like the smell and starts crying. The sink seems to be clogged with nail polish. This is double-pink plus ungood.

I keep at it, scrubbing both the surfaces and kid and daubing them with the nail polish remover. Then I run down to ye old internet and try to find out if there's an answer to this incredibly persistent sticky problem. I stick the kid in the bath and soap her off on my return as I read the remover might irritate the skin. The older kid thinks this is great fun and decides to have a bath with her sister. I'm still scrubbing away while watching them in the bath, thankfully the mess and kids are now in the same location.

I call my friendly family of neighbors across the street, the ones we spent the 4th with in the evening - Denise has to know something about how to remove nail polish from surfaces, she's a lady after all, right? - Drat no answer, so I leave a message "Denise, mind if I ask you a quick question about nail polish?"

She calls back almost immediately with her curiosity piqued and upon hearing the situation offers to come over to assist.

With copious amounts of nail polish remover - we went through 2 bottles and found that a Scotch-Brite pad soaked in remover works much better than soaking the spot and using a paper towel, all of the bathroom surfaces were scrubbed clean.

The kid still has somewhat pink hands, but I've been assured that will fade.

She has promised she will not touch nail polish again. "Sorry Daddy".