does your child eat paint chips?

my husband is a painter. and every time i fill out one of those information sheets at the doctor's office (you know, the one with the questions like 'does your child eat dirt, cigarettes, paint chips, etc.') i can't help but wonder if my children really do eat paint chips. i'm sure some some little pieces of dried paint fall off of ben's whites since he doesn't change right when he gets home. so there's that huge possibility that they do, in fact, eat paint chips. but of course i never say that when i'm at the doctor's office.

but after tonight, i'm not gonna second guess myself when it come to that question, because my son drinks paint. you see, my husband is a painter. yes, i know i already stated that, but he is. and what comes with having a painter husband is dirty brushes, pots, and 5 gallon buckets with paint in them that need to be cleaned.

so a couple weeks ago he brought home a 5 gallon bucket with a dirty grid, roller, and some leftover paint in it. he filled it about halfway with water to keep the roller wet, and set it on the floor out of the way. and there it has sat.

until tonight.

i don't know how many times i have walked by it thinking, "man, that's just the right height for ryan to pull up on," or "man, i hope ryan doesn't get into this."

tonight my thoughts turned into reality.

it was way past the kids' bedtime, about 9:50pm, and i was getting them ready for bed. samantha went to the bathroom (which is off the other side of the kitchen) and ryan followed her. but a basket of clean laundry blocked his path to the bathroom. so as i was picking up toys in the living room i heard samantha scream, "MOM!!!! I NEED YOU! OH, I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW REALLY FAST!!!"

as i ran into the kitchen samantha was pleading, "mom i promise it wasn't me. i was going potty, really. it was ryan." and there stood samantha on one side of the laundry basket, with ryan sitting on the other side in a lake of watered down paint next to a tipped over 5 gallon paint bucket.

you can imagine how badly i wanted to run and get my camera... but ryan's hands were going back and forth from the lake of paint to his mouth. to his hair. to his mouth. to his face. to his mouth. to his eyes. to his mouth. i hope latex paint isn't harmful to injest. so samantha stripped down and held his hands while i grabbed the pile of oversized paper towels (you know, the ones from this post).

(just imagine the paint all the way to the bottom of the picture with a diaper-clad ryan sitting in the middle of it!)

so i got ryan out of the lake and onto some paper towels. and while i was cleaning him up samantha said, "boy, i wish i could step in the paint and make my footprints on some paper...." so being the cool mom that i am, i grabbed a piece of paper and said go ahead!

then it was off to give the kids a quick bath, get them dressed and in bed, and now i am sitting here blogging about the mess that awaits me in the kitchen. yes, as it states at the top of my blog, this is another way to procrastinate!