The other night Asher asked if he could use his bathtub crayons in the bathtub. Bathtub crayons really do exist. They come in six colors and are meant to be used on the smooth surface of the tub. The picture on the box shows a smiling little girl who has drawn the letter "A" and a picture of the sun in her tub. The writing on the package promises "wipes easily with enclosed sponge." I am sure the little girl's picture wiped off easily with the duck shaped sponge. But Asher (always enthusiastic and sometimes excessive) covers every surface of the tub with these crayons. In fact, he can wear through half of each color crayon in just one bath.
I always have to get on my knees and scrub with cleanser and a rag when Asher is done with his bathtub crayon baths. Any mother knows that we do not need to create new reasons to clean, so recently I decided to hide the crayons. But Asher asked for them and I knew it would make an easy transition into the tub. So I said "yes." But I could only find one color. Red. Asher happily drew red pictures all over surface and the edges of the tub. He drew letters, and robots and shapes and designs. Too tired to get on my hands and knees after his bath and bedtime, I left the newly decorated red tub overnight.
The next morning I noticed Asher was carrying around the bathtub crayon. He wanted to try it out on paper. The next time he put it down I returned it to its hiding place. Later when we sat down for breakfast Asher pointed to a big zig zag red line drawn on the table. He looked up at me with all seriousness in his big brown eyes and said, "Look what one of the cats did. He must have picked up the crayon and made this mark." The thought of one of the cats drawing on the table made me laugh and somehow made it impossible to get upset. Besides, when drawn in small amounts, these crayons do really wipe off easily.
I even got to test this theory on clothing that very same morning. Mark sat on the edge of the tub to brush his teeth and ended up with the seat of his pants covered in red crayon. "There is something red on the back of your pants," I mentioned when Mark stood at the kitchen counter. "But I don't think you need to take those off, just let me get a wet rag." I applied my scrubbing technique to the back of Mark's pants and the crayon really did come right off.
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