My Life is Now Forever Changed

Want to know how to get Sharpie out of your kids' clothes? Well, I'm about to tell you.

We're still having the stomach bug going on around here and in the few minutes that I'm not changing someone's diaper or helping someone else in the bathroom I've been trying to get some things that needed doing MONTHS ago done around here. For instance, Henry's closet (until yesterday) had a bunch of clothes hanging in it that were a size too small. I've been preoccupied lately. So I decided to tackle it yesterday while the kids watched a Thomas movie. I did so good. I got all the 2t stuff packed up for consignment and donated all the stuff that couldn't be consigned. Then I unpacked all the 3t stuff and hung it and organized it. Then I put the closet back together.

It took me a little longer than the Thomas movie but the kids came in to help me when the movie was over. Kids meaning Henry and the girls. The older boys were still in school. They took all the ornaments off of Henry's tree and vamoosed. When I finished putting the closet back together I walked out and rounded the corner into the play room. In just split seconds, I kid you not, those little boogers had tattooed themselves, especially their hands and feet, the couch, the table and chair set, and they had also managed to dye their hair BLUE. I'm not talking little fine point sharpie here. I'm talking about the biggest sharpie they make, with a chiseled edge in BLUE. What can you do? I started to tear up. Then Mary Collins came over to me and looked at me with her spunky self and smiled this big ole grin, so proud of what she had done. When she put on that big ole grin her teeth were coral with the newest makeup made out of crayon. It's true, if you chew those crayons up fine enough they make a paste and it works well for makeup.....just ask my girls. They had it all over their mouths, face, clothes, etc.

I cleaned them all up and laid all three of them straight down for their naps.....it was clearly way PAST naptime! Then I had the chore of cleaning up their brand new Santa pjs that I paid close to $10 a pair for. I was not losing those babies. They'd only gotten two wears out of them. So what did I do? I called my mom of course. Now, my mom, she is a miracle worker when it comes to getting out stains. If you live close to Dothan and get something on your clothes give her a call. She can get ANYTHING out! Even if you've washed it already and set the stain and you think it's out with the day's trash she can get it out. She told me to use hairspray. For real, hairspray? Yep.

Here's what you do......if your child gets super crafty with your Sharpie that you have put away and hidden from them but they managed to find and tattoo themselves with anyway, you should try to treat the stain as soon as possible. DO NOT WET IT FIRST. Get you an ARESOLE can of hairspray. My mom says it has to be ARESOLE (I don't know why). Liberally spray the marker stain. Let it sit there a few seconds. Then rub it pretty hard with your finger/fingernail. Rub it for a while. You'll see the marker starting to bleed. If the stain is not that big it will magically disappear before your eyes. If the stain is as big as mine were you'll need to keep rubbing. Then you'll need to rinse it under warm water and repeat the hairspray steps until the stain is gone. My mom also said that rubbing alcohol works too. I was out of alcohol so I used the hairspray. It worked and my girls' pjs are saved! SCORE! Oh, and also, put you hand up inside the clothes under the stain. Does that make sense? So there's a barrier between the stain. For instance, if you're working with a shirt put your hand in shirt and hold under stain so the stained fabric is not touching the back of the shirt fabric.

Gotta love mamas! They know everything! Thanks mom and I love ya!

Just so you know, I don't know if the hairspray works for when your child uses Sharpie to dye their hair blue. I didn't try it. I can tell you that Sharpie for hair dye is a semi-permanent color. It does not rinse out with one shampoo. It takes more like three and LOTS of scrubbing, especially if they put too much color directly onto the scalp!

Never a dull moment at my house.