Ink a Bink, a Face Full of Ink

Today was a new experience for me. Seeing as how Josh is gone...always gone...my days are longer. But at a certain point in the evening, I can't seem to find enough time to finish the many things that must be done around here. It all starts with dinner and ends with me suffering from back pain as I run amok through the house while I finish the last chores of the day. (Where's a good chiropractor when you need one? Eh, Ben?) Anyhow, in order to progress in the slightest bit towards the end of the evening, I have come to rely on ulterior forms of entertainment. The Wiggles only go so far, so lately I've been giving Alex and Abby different items to entertain themselves while I vacuum. Tonight, I gave them paper and pens. Now, now. Don't judge me for giving them pens at such a young age. They were early Christmas presents that I gave them. They are little pads of paper on a Santa clipboard that comes with a tiny ink pen. Cute and made for kiddos. Okay, so maybe not made for a 20 month old, but she doesn't seem to understand that she isn't as old as Alex. So...she got one too. To say the least, it worked. Oh, they were entertained alright. Only, not exactly as how I planned. They decided that the paper wasn't interesting enough and decided to have a pen battle. This is new for me. Usually, when they get bored, they simply draw on themselves instead of each other. But could they just stick to the routine? No. Of course not. I looked over to see them whacking each other across the face (whilst laughing, mind you) with the pens. And I don't mean just mere drawing on one another. They actually caused red welts to develop over their entire faces. One mark was actually a few centimeters from an eyeball! What I don't understand is how there were no tears shed in this little battle of ink. I mean, the welts were huge! And everywhere! *sigh* Needless to say, they no longer possess those pens and I officially won the "Idiot mom move of the year' award.