DIY: After a 2 yr old...

I'm laughing now...in fact I even laughed about it later the day it happened...but at the time, 

I. was. horrified.

Toddlers...you just know they are up to something! No, you can't watch them ALL the time. No, you can't predict what is going through their minds at these moments. Yes, you can instruct them to do or not to do certain things, but you will ALWAYS forget something. I learned that just from listening to all the stories about my cousin's 4 kids! If you are naive to think your kids will never act like "so & so's" or they would never "think to do something like that" let me just say...your day is coming...if you have kids...something will happen & you will be left standing there...just shaking your head in disbelief! 

Needless to say I have had a few upsets since Greyson became mobile. Lots of messes, lots of things broken but as parents...you have to get over it. When you have kids you have to be prepared for anything...prepared as in, you WILL have something ruined & it's our jobs to either fix it, try to fix it, pay someone to fix it...or give up & buy a new one. =) 

There have been a few things here & there that Greyson has broken or made a mess of, but nothing this drastic. No, this was a first!! He has never been a big coloring fan...even when we tried our BEST to get to color a picture for his Poppie after his knee surgery. He just didn't want to take the time to scribble. 

How was I supposed to know he would find it SO MUCH FUN to take a pen to my micro-fiber cloth couch!! AND the walls!! It's amazing how fast he worked in the 5 minutes I left the room. I thought he was watching PLANES but instead he was busy scribbling with a pen. on the couch.

These were the only pictures I snapped...you know to send to his daddy & a few other people when I was mid-freaking out. It was much much worse. The whole front of the couch was covered...there was a mark on the backs of the cushions, of course scribbling all down the cushions & all over the other arm as well. I'm just glad he missed my pillows!

The first thing I did was google how to get ink out of microfiber. Thankfully that's where I learned he was not the FIRST 2 yr old to take a pen to a microfiber couch. There were several similar stories...one where it was the grandma's fault not noticing the child had a pen & she was worried they wouldn't get to spend Thanksgiving at her son's house that year! LOL 

So the main thing to do was use rubbing alcohol or a baby wipe. I started doing a few spots & surprisingly they came out, but as I worked I figured it would be easier to just have someone come clean it. It was taking too long & not showing me the results I wanted. 

After I called a few places & learned it would be about $100+ I decided to go back to trying it myself.

DIY: Upholstery Cleaning!

You will need...

*About an entire bottle of rubbing alcohol (depending on how big the mess is...if it's just one spot or mark a few dabs on a cloth & your good...in this case however....)

*small container to pour the alcohol in

*clean white cloth to scrub with

Next: Just dab the cloth in the alcohol & start working! I tried a small area to start with & let it dry just to make sure it wasn't going to do something weird to the color. 

Once I saw that it was actually working I continued to clean. 

Take breaks.

Clean some more.

Eat.

Clean some more.

Feed, change diapers, do laundry, fold laundry, load dishwasher, read books, play, nap time

Clean some more.

Finally you should start seeing the end of the tunnel!

By the time Matt got home from work (about 8:30pm) It was looking something like this:

Not bad! You can still see some blue streaks here & there, but I will keep working on it then next couple days & it should all come out. It dried nicely & probably 97% of stains came out to start with.

Greyson was punished. He was not a happy camper. He had privileges taken away & one of the most devastating was no cupcake after supper. (If you haven't found out by now my kid is the biggest CAKE lover out there) He probably cried more over the cake than anything! 

SO he has told both his Nana & Mimi that he would not write on anymore furniture. I hope it sticks.

Note: For walls, just use a magic eraser & it should come off. =) found those later...that was neat.