It’s 1:55 am and I’m down with a viral infection but I just had to write about this. Never mind if my head is throbbing a bit right now.
A few hours ago. I caught Derek writing on my bedroom door with a body crayon. Of course, I told him to stop but he was almost done when I got there. He ignored my command to stop. He points to his graffiti and says “Ocean Park.” OK? So I’m looking at some fish. I’m calm about it. I knew I can get him to scrub the door later. And then he opens my door and welcomes me to “Ocean Park” again.
Lo and behold, my bedroom had been transformed with an Under the Sea theme. My walls and closet doors were vandalized with crayon drawings of fish and waves. 
In all honesty, inspite of my sore throat and body, I couldn’t get myself to be angry. Derek may not be able to speak well but he can definitely express his ideas very well in his own unique way. How often does my ASD son have that chance?
Instead, I called my nieces and ask Derek to re-introduce the newest renovation in the house. I knew they would like it. What I didn’t expect was that they would grab the body crayons and add some more variety of marine life unto my walls and closet. They added octopi, jellyfish, sea slug, shrimp, starfish, lobster (or what looks like one), a ship and a submarine. I think they even recruited Spongebob into the graffiti. The walls and closet doors were apparently not enough as my floor was not spared either.
As the girls and Henry joined in the artistic pursuit. Derek was adding some more elements to make his version of ”Ocean Park” close to the real thing. He used my yoga mats as pathways to the tour. He arranged chairs to make it look like the cashier loaded with coins from his bank and some cut paper to look like tickets. Yes, there was an EXIT sign on the door too.
Tomorrow, these “vandals” will be stripped of their Nintendo Wii privileges and be sent to some major scrubbing of the walls and closets which I am sure they will also have fun doing together. Of course, I will be using Messy Bessy products so that they will enjoy it even more. Of course, I will have to play prison guard to ensure that they will stick to the task at hand and not get out of hand.
*** The kids did a great job in making my room to an even bigger mess the next morning, with all the soap and water all over my floor and walls. Nevertheless, they were treated to pizza and ice cream for all the laborious scrubbing and washing they did….I haven’t bought body crayons since then. 
